Director Chiu said that this item was to give an update on a public member’s complaint that he had filed two complaints against 807 Kansas Street.  Director Chiu stated that during construction according to DBI’s records the Department received two complaints regarding the size and the bulk of the building.  Director Chiu said that the Building Inspector went to the site to measure the height and the width to make sure they were according to the approved plans and found that the construction was according to plan so those cases were abated.  Director Chiu said that as far as DBI was concerned the building was in compliance with the approved set of plans and a CFC was issued shortly after construction was completed.

Commissioner Santos asked if the complaint was based on the bulk of the building or was it the permit process.  Director Chiu said that it was his understanding that the complaint was based on the size. 

Report on the status of Code Change Proposals for 2004 San Francisco Codes.

Director Chiu said that he wanted to give the Commission a heads up as to what the Department was doing with the Code cycle.  Director Chiu reported that every three years the State of California adopts the new Code so staff is in the process of updating the 2004 Building Code.  Director Chiu said that if the Commissioners have any area of input for updates on the Code this is the opportunity to start working with staff.  Director Chiu said that at this time the Department did not have any information as to when the State would be adopting the NFP5000 Code, which was chosen by the State a few months ago over the ICC Code. 

Commissioner Brown said that Director Chiu stated that there was no timeline on this, but the Department was waiting for direction from the State and asked about that process.  Director Chiu said that usually the State adopts the State Building Code and then San Francisco has 180 days after that to review the State Code and the San Francisco Code Amendments to see what kind of changes the Department might want to make.  Director Chiu said that the State has made it known that they have chosen NFP5000, but have not come up with an adoption date.

Public Comment:  The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda

Ms. Ernestine Weiss stated that she represented many tenants at the Golden Gateway Center comprised of 1324 units.  Ms. Weiss said that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck.  Ms. Weiss said that there was asbestos imbedded in ceiling in three out of four high-rise buildings and townhouses; elevators are swaying, are noisy and are stopping before floor landings and are overused due to age.  Ms. Weiss stated that there is corporate short-term activity; massive flooding recently from a garage into a retail store and rusty water in her shower and sink and in other apartments.  Ms. Weiss said that the Inspector describes, falsely, the rust as sediment to describe rusty water; sediment is defined in the dictionary as matter, which settles in liquid and rust is not matter.  Ms. Weiss said that there is rust and it was found and four people witnessed it.  Ms. Weiss stated that in New York a name for landlords like Golden Gateway Center is slumlords and Golden Gateway Center has the number one slumlord in San Francisco.  Ms. Weiss said that a slumlord is defined as milking the property and failing to use viable, preventative maintenance and instead uses a band-aid solution to major problems.  Ms. Weiss stated that this is unscrupulous behavior and totally unacceptable, possibly criminal.  Ms. Weiss said that Golden Gateway Center, which is four high-rises and townhouses are a death trap and should be condemned as uninhabitable.  Ms. Weiss said that Golden Gateway rents apartments to corporations on short-term basis driving rents up, depriving hotels of income, evading taxes and depriving the City of hotel taxes.  Ms. Weiss stated that Golden Gateway uses a cadre of high priced lawyers to stiff seniors especially with capital improvements and electric power, which is nothing more than costs that they should pay.  Ms. Weiss said that she was asking the Commission and the Department to thoroughly investigate all of the dangerous and life-threatening conditions she had outlined.  Ms. Weiss stated that Golden Gateway Center is a deathtrap and should be condemned as uninhabitable because it is a disaster waiting to happen.  Ms. Weiss thanked the Commission for their immediate attention.

President Fillon asked Director Chiu to follow up on this issue and asked if there had been any official complaints against this property regarding Code Violations.  President Fillon asked Ms. Weiss if she had made any complaints to the Department.  Ms. Weiss said that Inspector Sarkany is a very good Inspector who came out and found that the rust was really brown the first time that she called and he wrote up a violation, but then gave the property owners time to abate the complaint.  Ms. Weiss said that DBI came back and inspected the situation, but because the rust condition is sporadic it is very hard to get it on the day that the Inspector comes to inspect it.  Ms. Weiss said that when the Inspector came out the water was clear so the Inspector thought that the problem was solved, but it wasn’t so two or three days afterward she had rust again.  Ms. Weiss stated that she called the Inspector to make a second inspection and a Senior Plumbing Inspector came out and called it sediment.  Ms. Weiss said that it is not sediment as sediment is material that settles in liquid, and this was not sediment; it was pure rust.  Ms. Weiss said that four people witnessed this, the landlord’s representative who is the manager of the building, herself, Inspector Sarkany and the Senior Plumbing Inspector Davidson. 

President Fillon said that staff was aware of the problem and had sent people out to the property.  Ms. Weiss said that was correct.  Vice-President Hood said that since this was such a large number of units, 1700, she would really like to agendize this and get a report on it.  Ms. Weiss thanked the Commission.

Commissioner Santos said that the speaker mentioned that the building was a deathtrap and asked if the Department would have to send a Building Inspector to review the exiting path and path of travel or is this mostly a housing complaint.  Director Chiu said that the Department did receive a couple of complaints about rusty water and said that he talked to the complainant a few days ago; as a result he directed the Chief Plumbing Inspector to send his personnel to go back and investigate to see what else the Department could do to see that the issue was resolved.  Director Chiu said that, as to the deathtrap and whatnot, this is the first time that he had heard about it.  Director Chiu stated that he would send an Inspector out, probably along with a Fire Inspector, to make sure that any life safety issues get taken care of.  Director Chiu said that he would be happy to do an investigation and report back at a future meeting. 

Vice-President Hood said that these buildings were built back in the 1960’s and the path of exit would be an important thing to check now because the Codes have become so much more stringent.  Ms. Weiss said that the reason she said this building is so dangerous is because she personally was trapped in an elevator where two men had to lift her two feet above the ground floor landing for her to get out.  Ms. Weiss stated that she reported the elevator shimmying and swaying and then a maintenance person was sent out and a few days later the same condition existed because Golden Gateway is using this elevator as a freight elevator.  Ms. Weiss said that these buildings were not designed for freight elevators as these are passenger elevators, but there are all these move ins and move outs from corporations every few months and the elevators get very heavy use.

Report on the status of the entire DBI vehicle fleet. [Taras Madison, Manager of Administration and Finance]

Ms. Madison said that at the last year the Commission went over DBI’s 2004/2005 budget and Commissioner Guinnane requested some information on the Department’s vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that she had prepared a memo regarding the Department’s fleet.  Ms. Madison said that there are approximately 105 vehicles; over 43% of them are over 10 years old with the average maintenance cost being about $1,500.  Ms. Madison stated that the Department had not purchased any vehicles since fiscal year 2000/2001.  Ms. Madison said that the Department has lost about thirteen vehicles in the past year because of poor maintenance problems.  Ms. Madison stated that particularly, with a lot of the Tempos, most of them are requiring new transmissions, which is upward of $1,500 so it doesn’t make any sense to put that money into these older vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that Central Shops recommend that those vehicles be turned in.

Commissioner Guinnane said that at the last meeting the Commission discussed increasing the number of vehicles and in looking at the price of pick-up trucks versus cars they are listed as the same amount of money or around $25,000.  Ms. Madison said that the Department could buy a variety of vehicles and instead of listing a price for every type of vehicle; the Controller’s Office just takes an average.  Ms. Madison said that when the vehicles are actually purchased if too much has been budgeted then the Department gets the money back.  Commissioner Guinnane asked what the maximum amount of cars would be that the Department could purchase.  Ms. Madison said that she had twenty listed.  Ms. Madison said that she did not think that there was a maximum, but it’s just that usually when the Department is doing vehicle replacement it is usually about twenty at a time based on cost, but there is no maximum.  Ms. Madison stated that the 1992 Tempos still make up about 30% of DBI’s fleet so there are still a lot of vehicles to be replaced.  Vice-President Hood asked what was the total number of vehicles that were over ten years old.  Ms. Madison said that it would be about 47 vehicles.  Vice-President Hood said that she thought the Department should get rid of at least half of these vehicles, maybe at least 25.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if it would be possible to put a policy in place that every year when a car gets to a certain age it s automatically eliminated and replaced with a new car.  Ms. Madison said that the Department started to do that in 1999/2000, but in 2001/2002 that was stopped because of the budget so this Department could make this a goal because the fleet is important.  Ms. Madison said that according to Central Shops, DBI has the highest maintenance costs in the City.  President Fillon said that there were several cars that had maintenance costs of over $5,000 in a year and two others for $7,000 and $8,000.  Ms. Madison said that those were because of accidents and the cost was mostly for body work.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Department needed a resolution to replace the 47 cars now instead of just going with 20 because they are ten years and older.  Ms. Madison said that the Commission could do a resolution, but said that she thought that if it was documented in the budget hearing that this is important because the Department is spending too much money on maintenance and instead of doing 20 cars DBI wanted to replace 47 cars.  Ms. Madison stated that it would be up to the Department to defend that and work with the Mayor’s Office and the Board of Supervisor’s Budget Analyst and hopefully they would agree with that.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to replace the 47 cars and then come up with a policy to replace cars that are six years and older. 

President Fillon asked if these cars would be replaced with hybrids.  Ms. Madison said that the City’s rule is that it has to be a clean vehicle, either CNG or a hybrid, but because the Commission prefers hybrids they will be replaced with hybrids.  Vice-President Hood said that it is also true that the older a car is the more pollutants it is putting into the air so that would be conforming with the environmental policy.  Commissioner Brown said that the one problem he had with replacing a car just because it is old is that it seems that some of the newer cars are requiring more maintenance than some of the older cars.  Commissioner Brown said that the cars that are costing more to maintain should be gotten rid of and not necessarily the older car that is still running well.  Ms. Madison said that because of the number of vehicles that DBI has had to turn in the Inspectors know that if a vehicle has to go to Central Shops and is a certain age they are worried that the car will be taken and they won’t have any vehicle to do their inspections.  Ms. Madison stated that as a result some of the Inspectors are not turning their cars in for maintenance as frequently as they should.  Commissioner Brown said that there are some of the 1996 or 1997 cars that are not performing well and if there is just one standard that says that anything 1992 or 1993 and back are going to be replaced then the Department might not be looking at some of the new cars that might need to be replaced and are not functioning as well as the older ones.  Ms. Madison said that at some point the Department will have to use age, but age can’t be all of it.  Ms. Madison said that the Department does have some 1988 cars that have been pretty reliable, but at some point in time the car is just not worth repairing.  Ms. Madison said that whenever the Department decides to replace a vehicle the Department could look at the mileage and the cost over the life of the car for maintenance. 

Vice-President Hood said that she would like to comment on a six-year policy and stated that she thought that six years was too young to just replace the vehicles because she knows that a lot of cars are now designed to be more long lasting.  Vice-President Hood said that she had a 1989 Honda that runs very well and kept it even after getting a newer Honda.  Vice-President Hood said that some cars have much better maintenance records than others.  Vice-President Hood said that there should be some flexibility for the Department and the person that really knows all of these vehicles well.  President Fillon said that he agreed that there should not be a blanket replacement, but said that he liked the idea of moving from obtaining 20 cars to 40 cars.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like the Department to try and get 47 cars and then go back and look at the history of each car and the mileage and come up with a formula to replace these cars.

Director Chiu said that the next agenda item would be the appropriate time to allocate the number of cars.

Report, discussion and possible action to approve the proposed budget of the Department of Building Inspection for fiscal year 2004/2005. [Taras Madison, Manager of Administration and Finance.]

Ms. Madison said that the Commissioners had a memo from the Director going over a few updates that were made since the last meeting.  Ms. Madison stated that the budget would continue to change primarily because the Department has not received all of the work orders.  Ms. Madison said that those would come in right before the budget is submitted to the Controller’s Office on February 20.  Ms. Madison said that the Department wanted to highlight some of the changes so that the Commission would be aware of them.  Ms. Madison said that there was a $200,000 reduction in temporary salaries due to the reduction of temporary hours needed.  Ms. Madison said that there was a $200,000 increase in professional services for MIS projects; a $226,000 increase in a DTIS work order and Ms. Madison said that she had the information as to what was included in that order.  Ms. Madison said that there was a $350,000 increase that is reflected in both rents and leases and materials and supplies and because the Department did not move on with the annex there has been some problem with spacing needs so some people will be moved from the sixth floor to 1650 to have more space at 1660 Mission.  Ms. Madison stated that the cost for this would be about $138,000 for the leasing at 1650 and there is an increase in materials and supplies because the Department will have to purchase remanufactured cubicles and those sorts of things.  Ms. Madison said that there was a $66,000 increase in other current expenses.  Ms. Madison said that this was the line item that includes everything from copiers to LASON, which does all of the scanning of documents.  Ms. Madison said that the Public Service Division would be doing more scanning so the budget was increased for that line item.

Commissioner Guinnane asked what the $406,162 for DTIS operational support was about.  Ms. Madison said that was about $150,000 for the Acting MIS Manager and other LAN support, which means that DTIS staff is helping with the LAN.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the $150,000 was already in there for the Manager.  Ms. Madison said that was included in 2003/2004, but this was for 2004/2005.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the salary for the old Manager was already allocated and asked why that would change as that salary was about $124,000.  Ms. Madison stated that this was for the DTIS Manager for MIS; DTIS support for DBI. Commissioner Guinnane asked if this meant that there was a salary budgeted for two managers, one for DBI and one for DTIS.  Ms. Madison said that in the original reorganization plan the Department was not going to be using the salary for the DBI Manager so if there is a DTIS Manager there wouldn’t be a DBI Manager.  Commissioner Guinnane asked why that change was being made and why the Department would take away the DBI salary and go with the DTIS because with DTIS there is another fee for DTIS on top of a Manager’s salary so the Department is spending more money.  Director Chiu said that the amount to DTIS is about $2,000 more.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the Department is looking at almost $25,000 more because the DBI Manager’s salary was between $124,000 - $130,000.  Ms. Madison said that it was $125,000.  Commissioner Guinnane said that now the Department is at $150,000 and said he could not understand why there should be a change and spend $25,000.  Director Chiu said that the Department was still trying to find the right time to fill that Manager’s position and said that just because the Department allocates the work order it doesn’t mean that the money has to be spent.  Director Chiu said that at some time in the future when DBI no longer needs the service from DTIS then that salary wouldn’t have to be paid.

Director Chiu said that initially the Department thought that the reorganization would be approved and the DBI would continue on its own, but when the reorganization got stalled it now has to be revisited as to how the reorganization is going to be done.  Director Chiu said that at some point when the Department no longer needs DTIS then that amount would no longer be needed.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the DBI Manager’s position was going to stay in place and not reclassified or anything.  Director Chiu said that at this time the position is still there, but if it is not going to be used then it could be used for other positions, but if the Department decided to fill the position it could be backfilled.  Commissioner Guinnane said that it seemed like double work because if the Department comes along and eliminates that classification and then finally gets a Manager for DBI versus an outside company it seems like a lot of work to go back and get that classification.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he could not understand why the Department would just not leave that classification there and fill it down the road.  Director Chiu said that this could be done.

Commissioner Santos said that at a previous meeting the remodeling of the ground floor was discussed and it was mentioned that the commercial plan check counter was going to be merged with the residential plan check counter.  Commissioner Santos said that it was his understanding at that time that the Commission was allocating some funds for that remodeling.  Commissioner Santos asked if that was accounted for in this budget.  Ms. Madison said that it was actually accounted for in a separate budget as this is just for operating so when the Commission voted to use $2M the Department submitted a separate capital budget.  Ms. Madison said that this was not reflected in this $38M budget, but DBI did submit a capital budget from capital funds that were already appropriated three or four years ago.  Ms. Madison stated that these funds were just being redirected at this time.  Commissioner Santos asked if those funds would become available once the Board of Supervisors approved them.  Ms. Madison said that was correct.

Commissioner Guinnane asked what sub-op 081CZ for $47,000 was.  Ms. Madison said that was a DTIS work order called special projects and is just used for Citywide projects.  Ms. Madison stated that for most of these work orders the amount that was used for 2003/2004 was used for 2004/2005.  Ms. Madison said this amount is not budgeted every year. 

Commissioner Guinnane said that in the past couple of years there was a lot of money in MIS that was not spent.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if that money had now been spent or what money was carried over.  Ms. Madison said that for the past few years there has been a carry over of about $1.6M and DBI is in the process of using those funds this current fiscal year.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if all of those funds were going to be used and more or what was the plan for the $1.6M.  Ms. Madison said that the $1.6M is being used for the CORE network proposal that the MIS Committee approved to replace some network servers; the backup system is included and Novell server migration.  Ms. Madison said that basically it is a lot of hardware and software replacement that is being done with these funds because according to the DTIS MIS Manager DBI’s hardware and software is not up to par and before the Department thinks about doing other projects the current hardware and software needs to be upgraded. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked who was monitoring the revenue transfers to the Fire Department, the Environment and other departments and who is held accountable because that is over $3M.  Ms. Madison said that she was not exactly sure who was monitoring that, but said that she was assuming that the Mayor’s Office was working with those departments.  Ms. Madison stated that she had not received any information about these expenditures.  Commissioner Guinnane said that when he was involved in the negotiations with the money being transferred there were certain stipulations to be put in place regarding the spending of the money and the accountability.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had seen nothing to date on the $4.7M that was actually transferred.  Commissioner Guinnane said that one transfer was $250,000 to the Fire Department and one of the conditions on the $250,000 was that the Fire Department would put a couple of Plan Checkers into DBI to plan check the sprinkler ordinance because there was a big backlog.  Director Chiu said that he would write a letter to those department heads to find out the status of those funds.

Commissioner Guinnane asked the Director about the status of the MIS reorganization and all of the positions that are there.  Director Chiu said that he was planning to have a meeting in the next couple of weeks to talk about this in more detail.  Director Chiu said that Commissioner Guinnane and President Fillon were part of this committee and he would be happy to talk about details and where the Department wants to go in that Committee meeting.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if approving the budget would do anything to those MIS positions that are now in place.  Director Chiu said that at the MIS Committee meeting the Committee stopped the reorganization so the Department has not moved forward with that.  Director Chiu said that DBI has moved forward with trying to fill those existing vacant positions only and has not moved forward to change those positions as initially requested.  Director Chiu said that there were a lot of vacancies and he was directed to fill those positions because the longer DBI uses DTIS people the more it is costing so DBI needs to move forward to fill those vacancies without triggering the reorganization as the Commission directed.

Commissioner Santos asked that regarding transferring money for the sprinklers to the Fire Department who was checking the sprinkler plans and was it DBI.  Commissioner Santos asked if DBI was doing the plan checking for those drawings.  Director Chiu said that DBI’s role in checking the plans for the sprinkler systems was very limited and the Fire Department Plan Checkers spend more staff time checking those sprinkler plans.  Commissioner Santos asked who ultimately issued the permit.  Director Chiu said that the way the permit works is that the applicant files for sprinkler plans along with a building permit with DBI and DBI staff reviews them for Building Code requirements and ultimately DBI sends them onto the Fire Department.  Director Chiu said that when the Fire Department is done with the plans then they are sent back to DBI along with the application for issuance of the permit.  Commissioner Santos asked if the $250,000 to the Fire Department was primarily to cover their expenditure in the bulk of the review process.  Director Chiu said that he was not exactly sure about the number of people, but did recall that part of the agreement at the time of transferring the money was to make sure that they improved service particularly in the plans approval process.  Director Chiu said that he would report back at a future meeting.

President Fillon asked which Departments received money from DBI.  Director Chiu said that a number of departments received work order money from DBI such as City Planning, the Fire Department, the Department of the Environment, Real Estate and Public Health.  President Fillon said that he thought that some money was transferred to MOD.  Ms. Madison said that nothing was included in the $3.5M.  Commissioner Guinnane said that $2.5M+ went to City Planning, $701,000 to the Department of Public Health, $100,000 to the Environment and $250,000 to the Fire Department, which totaled about $3.7M to those four or five agencies, but the bulk of it went to Planning.  President Fillon said that he wanted some verification that this money was used for the purpose it was allocated for. 

Vice-President Hood said that under temporary salaries it showed that in 2003/2004 the Department spent $320,000 and now in 2004/2005 the Department was asking for $1M and asked why that was increasing by three times.  Ms. Madison said that the Department actually spent about $700,000 in temporary salaries and has always spent more than was budgeted.  Ms. Madison said that in this particular instance the increase is for a variety of things, most of those positions are for the Port project that was mentioned at the last meeting.  Ms. Madison stated that instead of bringing on new positions or a new support staff it was decided to place this money in temporary salaries so that is the bulk of it. 

Vice-President Hood asked about training that dropped by about $70,000.  Ms. Madison said that training has dropped so much simply because the Department was not spending the funds.  Ms. Madison stated that even when every other line item went down the Department kept training at a steady level so everyone that had to go to required training attended that training.  Vice-President Hood asked if that was because the Code was not changing that much in ‘04/05.  Director Chiu said that the training requirements by the State mandate does not mandate training every year, but is on a three-year cycle that requires 45-hours of continuing education.

Vice-President Hood asked about an item for modular recycled furniture systems at $4,500 per person for thirty-five people, which is $157,000 and communications, and data at $500 per person.  Vice-President Hood asked if that was for computers and linkages to the LAN.  Ms. Madison said that it was primarily for the wiring of the computers and telephones.  Ms. Madison said that this was just for rewiring when people move to another area. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked what Ms. Madison needed from the Commission to increase the number of vehicles requested from 20 to 47.  Ms. Madison said that she would include this as part of the budget. 

Ms. Madison said that she had given some incorrect information previously about Title reports in Professional Services.  Ms. Madison stated that the Department would need $17,500 for DAD because they are estimating that they need 100 Title Reports at $175 each.  Vice-President Hood asked what DAD was.  Ms. Madison said that was Disability Access and stated that most of the other divisions could use the Assessor’s information to pull the reports, but DAD cases need a true Title Report.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if on a DAD case where the Department pulls the Title Report does the Department notify the lenders and the owners or anybody with an interest in the property.  Ms. Madison said that she did not have that information.  Ms. Lee said that she believed that the Department does notify the lenders and the owners.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if there was any way to get software from a Title Company or software to tie into the Recorder’s Office directly.  Ms. Lee said that for Disability Access because there is litigation there is a special format and one of the requirements is a full-fledged Title Report separate from something that could be pulled from the Assessor’s Office.

Commissioner Santos said that the Mayor has suggested that all of the departments look at a worst-case scenario 15% cut on their budgets and asked if this was reflected in DBI’s budget.  Ms. Madison said that DBI’s budget is not reduced at all, but has increased especially with putting in for the extra vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that the reduction was strictly for General Fund departments, and for Special Fund departments, such as DBI, as long as the Department has the resources the budget could be put forward.  Ms. Madison stated that she would like to caution everyone that this is a great budget and the Department is trying to get as much as possible, but said that she did believe that it would be difficult for the Department of Building Inspection to get everything it wants while 99.9% of the other departments are getting little.  Ms. Madison said that the Department does not have all of this money in operating funds, but there is a surplus to balance this out. 

Vice-President Hood said that there should be a lot of detail regarding the cars because that is probably the first thing that the Mayor’s Office would look at.  Vice-President Hood said that there is a good argument that the DBI is actually going to save money by doing it. 

Vice-President Hood asked about the item for material and supplies and said that it looks like this amount has doubled.  Ms. Madison stated that it has doubled and the bulk of it was because of MIS supplies that the Department is buying such as monitors and computers.  Ms. Madison said that items that are $5,000 and less are considered supplies and not equipment.  Ms. Madison stated that there were some safety supplies included in materials and supplies.

Commissioner Brown asked if there was any information on the transfers to other Departments and how many years DBI is planning on transferring these funds.  Commissioner Brown asked if this was going to be an annual transfer or if it is going to be short term as the Commission thought last year.  Ms. Madison reported that the Department has not received any additional information, but these items were included in DBI’s baseline meaning that it was included in the base expenditures for DBI.  Ms. Madison said that she would ask about this issue.  Commissioner Brown said that he thought that it was dangerous for this Department to continue to ratify these expenditures without actually asking any questions.  Commissioner Brown stated that he did not want the Department to give up on this entirely because if DBI is in need of these funds this year and in future years he did not want these other departments to think that this money is just part of their budget.  Vice-President Hood said this was a very good point and said that this might become a standard practice, but the Commission should not encourage it.  Commissioner Guinnane said that in going back to the meetings that were held about the $3.7M it was his assumption that this was a one-time deal that initially started out as a loan and then all of a sudden it was just being given, but it was not supposed to be on an annual basis.  Commissioner Santos asked if DBI had only given money to Planning once or were there other funds allocated to Planning.  Ms. Madison stated that this was the first year that this had been done.  Vice-President Hood said that she remembered checking at the time because these are funds from permit fees if these were actual legal transfers and there was a document from the City Attorney stating that they are, but said that practically this is going to happen because of the $300M shortfall that the General Fund in the City is facing.  Vice-President Hood said that she did not think that the BIC should introduce it on the DBI budget.  President Fillon said that there should be an official request for these monies and it should not just be a line item.  Ms. Madison asked if the Commission was saying that the Department should take these monies out of its base because it is already there.  Commissioner Brown said that his recommendation was that it not be considered for this coming budget and that these items be reintroduce after the Department and the Commission has reviewed the success of the programs and review whether or not DBI has the funds to transfer.  Ms. Madison said that if the Commission approved the budget today for 2004/2005 those items are in the baseline budget for DBI and would be included for next fiscal year.  Commissioner Guinnane, Vice-President Hood and Commissioner Brown said that they would agree to take these items out of the 2004/2005 budget.

Ms. Lee said that last year the Commission and the Department stated to the Mayor’s Office and all of these departments that it was difficult for DBI to monitor the expenditures and take complete responsibility for that monitoring because DBI does not have the ability to manage other departments and tell them how to spend or when to curb spending.  Ms. Lee said that the resolution to that problem was to have someone from the Mayor’s Office monitoring these monies and report back to DBI on a quarterly basis.  President Fillon said that the BIC had not received any such reports.  Ms. Lee said that while the BIC had mentioned that the Department wanted to make sure that the funds were spent appropriate to legal use there is also the issue that was raised last year about how the money was spent.  President Fillon asked Ms. Lee to follow up with this report.  Commissioner Brown said that it was very important because the Commission never heard publicly from any of these departments that wanted these funds and it is important that this be a public process.

Commissioner Guinnane said that in going back there was $2.5M that was sent to Planning and initially that money was to be used for up zoning for Third Street, Geary Blvd. and another street for EIRs.  Commissioner Guinnane said that this would not be an issue for this year so he would knock that money completely out.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he spoke to Gerald Green about the fee structure and was told that Planning was going for a 10% increase.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he suggested a 25% increase because in looking at the way the Discretionary Reviews (DR) are being filed the cost to Planning is probably $2,500 minimum and the filing fee is under $200.  Vice-President Hood said that a DR requires a lot of review and public hearing by the Planning Commission.  President Fillon said that it included a lot of staff time to prepare for that hearing including notifications.  Commissioner Santos said that as he understood it a representative of the Planning Department was asked to make a presentation to the BIC regarding their use of the money and how they planned to use the money, however, no one has ever talked to the BIC about this issue.  Commissioner Guinnane said that Gerald Green kept talking to him about Planning’s wish list and Commissioner Guinnane said he told Mr. Green that DBI had a wish list too and that it was to keep the money.  Vice-President Hood said that she thought that the Department had a public commitment when DBI collects these funds for a building permit to use the money for permit enforcement.  Vice-President Hood stated that she thought that DBI could stretch this to cover what Planning did in their searches and that was legal, but she believed that the law reads that the fees have to cover the work done.  Vice-President Hood said that if Planning is only charging $150 for a DR then they ought to take a look at that to see if they could make their fees more equitable.  President Fillon said that at the very least the BIC and DBI should get a new request with an itemized list of what the money is going to be used for, how much it is going to cost and the City Attorney should review this to make sure that legally the transfer is in compliance for what DBI is allowed to do.  President Fillon said that DBI could get in a lot of trouble if money is being given to other departments to do things that are not allowed so it is not just keeping control of the money, but it is keeping the Commission and the Department clean in the process.  President Fillon stated that those baseline items should come out of the budget.  President Fillon asked for a motion to approve the budget.

Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos that the budget be approved with the changes that were discussed at today’s meeting.

The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. 053-03

Vice-President Hood thanked Amy Lee and Taras Madison for doing a fabulous job in running down the answers to all of the Commissioner’s questions.  Vice-President Hood stated that Taras had done an unusually diligent job and was extremely patient and accommodating.

President Fillon asked if there was anything else to do in terms of the schedule for the budget.  Ms. Madison said that this was the second reading and it was passed so now the Department had to put it into format and send it over to the Controller’s Office by February 20^th.  Ms. Madison said that she would follow-up with the Department’s Budget Analyst in the Mayor’s Office to try and get some information on the transfers.  Ms. Lee said that the budget was approved with exclusions and then the Mayor’s Office would be getting back to the Department with any additions.

Commissioner Guinnane asked where the Department was with revenues through December.  Ms. Madison said that the Department was about $1M over projected revenue, but that is because the Department has been really conservative and because of Litigation settlements.  Ms. Madison stated that the Department was doing well in Plan Check revenues so through December it looks good; the Department is not cost covering, but it is better than the $28M that was collected before. Vice-President Hood asked if the Litigation settlements were monies that the Department collected from scofflaw landlords who were not maintaining the Code in their buildings.  Ms. Madison said that was correct.

Commissioner Guinnane asked about the actual overture of $1M and what percentage of that $1M was attributed to collection through the Litigation Committee.  Ms. Madison said that it was probably 1/3 of it and Plan Check fees were 1/3 and Building permits would be the other 1/3.

Report, discussion and possible action to install tracking devices in DBI vehicles.       [Commissioner Guinnane]

Commissioner Guinnane said that he had been working on this issue for some time, but this was the first time it was on the calendar.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that Oakland has a similar kind of a deal and the Water Department or the PUC for the vehicles for San Francisco.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he had been hearing some stories about DBI vehicles being stolen or lost for a week and one was actually in the shop for a month and nobody knew where it was.  Commissioner Guinnane said he had been looking at a company named Trumbull Line and a chip would be put on the cars.  Commissioner Guinnane said he would propose to put these chips on the new cars that would be coming on board so the cars could be monitored and monitor where they are during the day.  Commissioner Guinnane said that this would show if a car left DBI and was sitting in the same spot for six or seven hours; it would be very interesting to find out why that car was not moving.  Commissioner Guinnane said that this would be mainly for theft, vandalism and keeping track of the cars and this was his reason behind this.  Commissioner Guinnane said that at a future meeting he would have more information including the vendor and the actual cost.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he was trying to get some information from Oakland. 

Commissioner Santos asked how the technology worked in terms of placing the chip on the vehicle.  Commissioner Guinnane said that apparently the device could be put on the car and tracked through the computer system at DBI; the Managers of the different divisions would have the ability to track their cars and logon at any time to see where the cars are.  Commissioner Santos asked if the Managers could logon at any time.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that there was a memory that would keep track of the car for the last seven or ten days on movements of the cars.  Commissioner Santos asked if this would trigger some accusations of big brother watching over the employees.  Commissioner Guinnane said absolutely not and said that all of the big trucking companies have it.  Commissioner Guinnane said the PUC/Water Department has it and Oakland implemented it.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he thought a lot more departments should implement it because it is a thing of the future.

Director Chiu said that it would be a good idea to transfer this information to Administration so that they could start looking at a vendor to make sure that the vendor qualifies with the City.  Assistant Director Lee said that she believed that in Oakland there was some Union issues so when there is more information the Unions should be involved.  Vice-President Hood said that she worked with a Police Department building and they wanted to put these devices in Police cars and the Police Union stopped it.  Vice-President Hood said that many private cars now have these devices that are considered luxuries because if a child is locked in the car it can be opened.  President Fillon said that this was definitely going to be a hot item.  President Fillon stated that this is putting a monitor on the Inspectors and the Union should be involved as early as possible to discuss why this is a good idea.  President Fillon said that he wanted to make it clear to staff that this is not an attack on them as there have been enough attacks over the past few years.  Vice-President Hood said that Amy Lee’s suggestion to see what problems Oakland had in implementing this and what the concerns were would be very helpful before the Commission suggests this.  Vice-President Hood stated that people are very concerned about their privacy and right to determine how they do their own work.  Vice-President Hood said that one of the concerns since she has been on this Commission is the fact that Housing Inspectors take a longer time to do an inspection than Building Inspector and it is because it is harder to get in and the problems are harder to find so there are some very good reasons.  Vice-President Hood said that she did not want anyone to feel that this has been triggered by a lack of distrust on the part of the Commission for the honesty and accountability of staff.

Ms. Madison said that if the Commission is interested in doing this there should be some estimates and something should have been put in the budget for it.  Ms. Madison stated that she was assuming that this would be somewhat expensive and given that it is vehicles the Department might have to go though Central Shops.  Vice-President Hood said she thought it was just a global tracking device and said that she thought they cost a couple of hundred dollars each.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he checked with a company and the actual cost to cover the DBI fleet would be around $80,000 for all of the hardware and chips for all the cars.  Commissioner Brown said that he felt that there should be more review on this before it is placed in the budget.  President Fillon said that this was an issue that would have to be bought into by a lot of parties and if it was put in the budget it is almost as if the BIC is saying it is going to be done without any feedback and it would probably take a year to do anyway.

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..

Copies of various letters from Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson to Mr. Ron Kaufman regarding 450 Rhode Island Street.  Report requested by public member at January 21, 2004 BIC meeting.

Report on the seventh annual EduCode International conference to be held February 23-27, 2004 in Las Vegas.

Copy of Interim Office Policy Procedures regarding Emergency Response titled Level 1 Emergency Off-Hours Response Procedures.

Vice-President Hood said that she hoped that copies of those letters in 9a were sent to the person who came to complain.

Review and approval of the minutes of the January 7, 2004 meeting.

Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos, to approve the minutes.

The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 054-03

Adjournment.

Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos, to adjourn the meeting.

The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 055-03

The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m.