Building Inspection Commission
BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)
Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
Wednesday September 5, 2001 at 1:00 p.m.
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 408
Adopted October 3, 2001
MINUTES
The meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 1:15 p.m. by President Fillon.
1. Roll Call - Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified.
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
Alfonso Fillon, President Denise D'Anne, Commissioner
Bobbie Sue Hood, Vice-President, absent Esther Marks, Commissioner, 2:45
Roy Guinnane, Commissioner Rodrigo Santos, Commissioner
Debra Walker, Commissioner
Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary
D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:
Frank Chiu, Director
Amy Lee, Assistant Director
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Sonya Harris, Secretary
2. President's Announcements.
President Fillon said that he did not have any announcements.
3. Director's Report. [Director Chiu]
a. Report on DBI's participation in the program "Rebuilding American Pilot Project for Limited Home Modifications for Low Income Homeowners in San Francisco."
Director Chiu said that item #3a was to keep the Commissioners informed as to the program that the Mayor's Office has initiated to rebuild mostly low income, elderly or disabled homes. Director Chiu said that this program has been in existence for a number of years, but was known as Christmas in April and was recently changed to the San Francisco Home Safety and Independence Program. Director Chiu stated that he and Assistant Director Amy Lee met with the Mayor's office staff to assist with the program and agreed to pledge $10,000 for this fiscal year. Director Chiu said that he felt this was a good cause and some of the repair work to be done will be to provide grab bars and handrails. Director Chiu stated that one of the things he suggested for the program was to provide smoke detectors. Director Chiu said that next year the Department would revisit its participation in this program and keep the Commission informed as part of the budget process. Director Chiu said that this year, the request came in after the budget, but stated that he felt that the Department could afford $10,000 to support this type of cause. Director Chiu said that no action was needed other than his intention to keep the Commission informed.
Commissioner D'Anne said that she noticed that there would be a staff coordinator overseeing the program, but asked if there were going to be any technical personnel that would be involved to direct the volunteers that would be doing the work. Director Chiu said that the way that the program works is that the people who are going to be doing the work are all volunteers. Director Chiu said that he remembered in the past that a number of DBI staff had volunteered to do some of the repair work, but the work that is done is usually work that does not require building permits as it is mostly maintenance such as painting, installing grab bars or replacing toilet seats. Director Chiu said that he did not anticipate that there would be technical involvement, but said that the Mayor's Office has to pay someone to run this program and DBI is just chipping in to help with funding.
President Fillon asked if any staff time would be devoted to this program or is the work done on a volunteer basis only. Director Chiu said that the program is going to hire one and one-half full time employees, but everything else including materials and actual installation is donated. Commissioner Walker said that DBI would just be donating into the fund. Director Chiu said that this was correct, that DBI is only one of the many departments that are helping out with the program, but the actual installation and repair work would come from volunteers.
b. Report on the status of blight ordinances in other cities and jurisdictions.
Director Chiu said that the Commissioners had copies of blight ordinances from other cities in the Commission package as requested at a previous meeting. Director Chiu said that he had asked his staff to call various agencies for the information. Director Chiu stated that two years ago Supervisor Bierman was very interested in crafting a blight ordinance and stated that he had met with her on two or three occasions; then Supervisor Bierman retired from the Board. Director Chiu said that now Supervisor Gavin Newsom has picked up on this ordinance. Director Chiu said that Supervisor Newsom had asked the City Attorney's Office to draft an ordinance and then it was put on hold. Director Chiu said that he would recommend that the Commissioners review other agencies' ordinances and revisit the ordinance that is being proposed by the Supervisor. Director Chiu stated that the Commission could also come up with its own ordinance. President Fillon asked for some background on this matter as to who requested it and why. Director Chiu said that there are number of properties, particularly SRO hotels or apartment buildings that are vacant or partially vacant because of fire. Director Chiu said that under the current Building Code there is no law against having a property vacant as long as the property is secure, meaning that there are no vagrants sleeping in it or no one is trashing the building or causing any type of problems. Commissioner Walker said that she actually brought up the issue of trying to encourage people who own buildings that have been damaged by fire to put them back into use in a timelier manner. Commissioner Walker said that Director Chiu had mentioned that some cities do this with a blight ordinance. Commissioner Walker stated that some of the residential hotels have sat empty for a long time when the City is in dire need of low-income property. President Fillon said that the Department might want to check with Redevelopment as they have a very specific legal definition of blight that governs what they do. President Fillon stated that the Redevelopment Agency operates in San Francisco and would be attune to the type of buildings that exist here in the City.
Director Chiu said that the examples provided were for City of Oakland, San Jose and Daly City. Director Chiu said that he was looking to the Commission for direction and said that the Department could work with the City Attorney's Office to draft some language. President Fillon warned on the side of caution when dealing with the definition of blight because it is a very touchy subject and has been abused in the past. Commissioner Walker said she agreed. President Fillon said that if it comes to a time when the Commission is going to recommend a definition that would be used to take action, input should be sought from different aspects of the community.
Commissioner D'Anne said that in looking at some of the ordinances, it looks as if some of the items seem to replicate what other agencies are handling such as the Health and Fire Departments. Director Chiu said that in some instances, such as violation, there is overlapping between DBI and the Fire Department and sometimes the Health Department, but currently within the Building Code there is no provision for DBI to enforce something where a property is secure and vacated. Director Chiu said that he believed that the intent of the Commission was to find a way to, as Commissioner Walker stated, encourage property owners to fix the property faster.
President Fillon asked what was the plan for implementation of the definition. Commissioner Walker said that the original idea was to get together a group of people, including representatives from the tenants' community and the building owners community to try and figure out how to encourage repairs to happen quickly. Commissioner Walker said that Director Chiu had said that some cities deal with this issue by having a blight ordinance, as the City cannot just say that someone has to fix the property within six months or whenever. President Fillon asked if the intention was to bring these people to the table by having them be in violation of this ordinance. Commissioner Walker said that she agreed with President Fillon that this might sometimes open a Pandora's box by having a blight ordinance because it can be misused. Commissioner Walker said that she would prefer if there were another avenue, but it may be the only thing that can be done. President Fillon said that he wanted to keep in mind that in San Francisco a blight ordinance has been used to evict entire communities. Commissioner Walker stated that she was totally aware of this situation. Director Chiu said that in the Daly City ordinance there is a provision that addresses property that is vacant or abandoned for more than 120 days and this is when the blight ordinance kicks in. Director Chiu said that this ordinance states that the property owner needs to replace windows and doors, as Daly City does not want the windows and doors just boarded up. Director Chiu said this is something that the Commission should look at and perhaps place on the calendar for a future meeting and invite all of the various parties to participate in a discussion. Commissioner Walker a said that she would not like to list this as a blight ordinance, but as someway to encourage the repair of inhabitable buildings quicker.
c. Status of the proposed ordinance on banning wood burning fireplaces and similar devices.
Director Chiu said that at the last meeting, the Commission had requested that the Board of Supervisors give the Department and the Commission more time to further research and discuss the banning of wood burning fireplaces. Director Chiu stated that on August 23rd the Board of Supervisors' Committee did have a hearing and honored the request for continuance.
Director Chiu said that Supervisor Daly was insisting that he was very concerned about the quality of the air and encouraged that the BIC agendize this item as soon as possible and have more people participate to get this issue solved. Director Chiu said that on September 19th, Laurence Kornfield who is the head of DBI's Technical Services Division is holding a Code Advisory Committee meeting to further discuss this issue and DBI will discuss the public concerns at a future BIC meeting. Director Chiu said that hopefully by that time there would be more information available, as requested by Commissioner Guinnane as to how the cost will impact this particular ordinance. Director Chiu said that he did not have this data at this point.
d. Report on the status of the Draft Administrative Bulletin regarding aisle widths within merchandise display areas in M Occupancies.
Director Chiu said that he wanted to give a report on the Department's action to come up with an Administrative Bulletin to deal with aisle widths for the retail stores. Director Chiu stated that the Department has been meeting with the public, meaning the disabled community and the small business community to try to come up with a reasonable enforcement on the State Title 24 regulations. Director Chiu said that in the Department's mind the Title 24 disabled access regulation applies and as such the Department is trying to come up with reasonable guidelines for staff enforcement. Director Chiu said that the way the law reads, or the way that the disabled community understands the law, is that if there is retail space with merchandise racks on both sides of the aisles, then there should be a 44-inch clear aisle. Director Chiu said that if it is only one side, then it is 36 inches. Director Chiu said that three years ago there was a number of complaints lodged against retailers and staff have been enforcing the 36 inches or 44 inches. Director Chiu said that it was brought to his attention some time last year that 44 inches may not be reasonable because there are some small stores or movable racks where it is difficult to enforce. Director Chiu said that DBI felt that they had come up with a way to interpret the law that was fair and adequate. Director Chiu said that last year at this time the first public meeting was held and at that meeting no consensus was reached with the disabled community, as they were adamant about enforcing the 44 and 36-inch aisle widths. Director Chiu said that the Department came up with allowable widths that included a 32-inch aisle width. Director Chiu said that on the second version, the Department came up with an approach that they felt was useable again with using 44, 36 and 32-inch aisle widths. Director Chiu said that a meeting held last month, again there was no consensus between the two groups. Director Chiu said that the retailers association has been calling the office and writing letters challenging the recent decision by two federal courts; the retailers feel that moveable racks should not be included or at least this is an issue in which they should not be getting involved. Commissioner Santos asked if this was an issue as a result of the Macy's litigation. Director Chiu said that Macy's was involved as well as Mervyn's sometime last year and now the Department is back to square one as to how to proceed. Director Chiu said that he would be continuing to work with the City Attorney's Office to get clarification to be able to answer the questions that have been raised by these retailers as to the actual law and court decisions. Director Chiu said that he did not yet have a chance to meet with the City Attorney's Office, but wanted to make the Commissioners aware of this situation in case they would be receiving any calls pertaining to it. Director Chiu said that because the Department does not have a formal guideline as to how to enforce the law there are six cases in abeyance until the Department is able to resolve this issue. Director Chiu said that in the last month the phone has been ringing off of the hook from both the disabled community and the merchants.
Director Chiu stated that he would be handing out a report on the activity that has been going on in the Department for the past month and would be continuing to do this on a monthly basis to keep the Commissioners informed. Director Chiu said that he did not intend to go over the issues unless the Commissioners are concerned about a particular item and would want it placed on a later agenda.
President Fillon asked if there was any public comment on items discussed in the Director's Report.
Mr. Bill Barnes from Supervisor Daly's Office said that he wanted to speak on item 3c. Mr. Barnes said that he wanted to thank Commissioner Walker for her work on item 3b and said that Supervisor Newsom's Office has contacted Supervisor Daly's Office to say that they are working on a blight ordinance of some kind, but had not yet seen a draft. Mr. Barnes said that he would let Supervisor Newsom's Office know that the BIC was interested in this issue and would make sure that any draft ordinance would be sent to the Commission.
Mr. Barnes said that on item 3c, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which is the regional body responsible for managing air quality, has drafted a model ordinance on the issue of wood burning fireplaces. Mr. Barnes stated that Supervisor Becerril, in October of last year introduced the ordinance before the Board and it was forwarded to the Building Inspection Commission. Mr. Barnes said that some of Supervisor Daly's impatience is caused by the air districts concern that it is important that as San Francisco moves forward with an ozone plan and other kinds of Federal air quality plans, that the nine counties in the Bay Area actually have policies and procedures in place to limit air quality violations. Mr. Barnes said that San Francisco has been in violation of the Federal standards for 20 of the last 21 years. Mr. Barnes said that the Air District staff wanted him to communicate that they were willing to come to the BIC to make a presentation as to how they came to develop the model ordinance, which is what Supervisor Daly's Office has introduced, and to take comments if there are specific, San Francisco related, changes that the Commissioners would like. Mr. Barnes said that he would like to close by saying that by the anniversary of Supervisor Becerril's introduction, which was last October, Supervisor Daly's Office would like to have this item up for consideration before the Board of Supervisors and in order to do that the Commissions' support is needed. Mr. Barnes thanked the Commission for their work and thanked Director Chiu for doing a lot of the legwork on this issue. Mr. Barnes said that the Air District is available to provide additional information for the Commission if needed.
4. 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 public comment.
5. Report on the status of MIS regarding online permitting and complaint tracking. [Assistant Director Lee]
Assistant Director Lee said that she was just following up on her presentation given at the last meeting regarding the status of the online permitting. Ms. Lee said that she invited BAI, the group that has been working on the citywide technology initiative to do a demonstration for the Commission, as most of the programs would be hard launched this week. Ms. Lee said that she would also briefly discuss the subscription fees associated with this program. Ms. Lee invited Mr. Bill Cull of BAI to begin the presentation.
Mr. Cull said that he had handed out copies of the screen shots for the three DBI permitting applications. Mr. Cull said that these applications would be going into hard launch this week. Mr. Cull said that electrical and plumbing had been up for months and simple building permits would be going up this week.
Mr. Cull said that he wanted to spend a short amount of time talking about his organization and the company of which they are a subsidiary. Mr. Cull said that his company was a subsidiary of NIC, the world's largest and most experienced e-government company in the world that operates fifteen state portals across the country and portals for nine of the largest cities in the country. Mr. Cull stated online permitting is nothing new to his company, but this type of permitting is. Mr. Cull said that there is a lot of reason that the Commission and the Department should be very proud of the three applications because they are unique. Mr. Cull said that there is a lot of talk about e-permitting and permits online, but if the onion skin is peeled away a lot of the nuances that people expect in online permitting are not there. Mr. Cull said that the City of Los Angeles deals with faxed permits after a customer has registered online for a permit. Mr. Cull said that DBI permits that are sitting there today actually generate a permit from the contractor's printer and that is applicable for all three permits; that is unique. Mr. Cull stated that it is unique in many different ways and said that the City and BAI as a partner have recently won two of the most coveted e-government awards and one of the reasons they cited the awards was the permitting sweep.
Mr. Cull made a presentation of the applications demonstrating validations in the permitting process such as owners name, contractor's license, location of the permit, whether there is a flag on the property or whether there are any problems with the property and this ties in directly with DBI's system. Mr. Cull said that BAI was doing a very complicated computation with DBI's systems that comes up with the total fees due. Mr. Cull said that after entering all of the pertinent information that has been verified the contractor is then issued a permit on his printer. Mr. Cull said that this is very state of the art and said that the system to be used at DBI is as good as it gets as far as online permitting in the United Stated today.
Ms. Lee said that when DBI initially discussed its online endeavors, the Department was trying to do a batch process as that was the technology that was available at the time, but as development and time progressed with this project, DBI realized that it could go a step further and have an instantaneous permit. Ms. Lee said that the Department decided to take the extra time that it would take to do a better job to provide the instantaneous permitting rather than the batch processing.
Mr. Cull said that the online permit is a valid permit meaning that it appears on the DBI systems on the first floor two or three seconds later and the inspectors have been trained to know that this is an electrical permit filed on the web and all of the information is available for inspections.
Ms. Lee said that Mr. Cull presented an excellent overview and wanted to add some information about how the Department obtains the revenue for this online permit process, as this was a concern to the Commission. Ms. Lee stated that the Department had worked with the Controller's Office as well as the Tax Treasurer's Office and stated that it would be best for the entire project to do a subscription service where users will, through BAI, be registered and do their online permitting for the month; BAI will bill the customer at the end of the month, receive payment within fifteen days and then DBI will receive the funds. Ms. Lee stated that there were concerns that DBI would jeopardize the ability to provide inspections and permits associated with this project because of the delay in receiving the revenue; however, BIA has taken it upon themselves to be the debtor, or creditor, for DBI in that they will ensure that DBI receives payment no matter what happens. Ms. Lee said that BAI would be the creditor if the subscriber chooses not to pay. Ms. Lee said that in this case one of the things that will fair well for the Department is that customers are not just one-time users and want to be in good standing with DBI. Ms. Lee said that the Department hardly ever has any problems with bounced checks or with people not paying their fees because if they don't their next project will be stopped.
President Fillon asked how the permit fee was assessed if there is no one at a desk looking at the plans. Director Chiu said that this is the reason that a number of cities elected not to do online permitting because of having to deal with these technical issues. Director Chiu said that right now a customer could come to the counter and say that they are going to do a kitchen remodel for $10,000. Director Chiu said that initially the Department takes the customers word, but during inspection there is the opportunity to adjust and revaluate the cost. Director Chiu stated that this is no different from how it is done over the counter. President Fillon asked if there was a way for the Department to check the validity of what is being claimed on the forms. Director Chiu said that this is done at the inspection level. Commissioner Walker said that one of the descriptions on a sample form is to wire a new addition and asked if the system would look to see if there was a building permit for an addition in the first place before issuing an electrical one. Director Chiu said that an electrical permit was probably not a good example to look at for fee calculation, as there is a flat fee for electrical based on the number of inspections required. Director Chiu said that with a building permit, if a customer applies for a permit to remodel a kitchen and values the cost of work at $1,000 this would automatically raise a flag, but if someone lists the cost at $15,000 or $20,000 then initially the Department would trust that it was correct. Director Chiu said that then when the inspector goes to the property the value can be verified. President Fillon said that sometimes a customer will come in with plans showing a $5,000 kitchen remodel and then in the field they will do $150,000 remodel. Director Chiu said if a customer undervalues the cost of the work there is a way to adjust the cost and then the property owner or the project sponsor has to come back to the Department to pay the difference. Ms. Lee said that the way that permits are being taken online is no different from the way they are submitted live in terms of the customer providing the valuation. Ms. Lee said that the way the Department issues permits inherently has certain checkpoint and validation points to verify the appropriate valuation. Ms. Lee said that the clerks also pull copies of these permits for the inspectors and check them over.
President Fillon asked if there was anywhere on the form that it is stated to the customer that certain items will be followed up so they are not tempted to put in false information. Director Chiu said that these building permits are strictly for maintenance or interior remodeling such as termite repair, reproofing, kitchen or bathroom remodeling. Director Chiu said that an online permit could not be obtained for a horizontal or vertical addition, as the work will all have to take place within the existing envelope. Ms. Lee said that the users will be subscribers to BAI and there is an agreement that in order to be a subscriber the customer must verify that all of the information that is being submitted is true and valid. President Fillon asked what the requirements were for being a subscriber and does a subscriber have to be a licensed contractor. Mr. Cull said that the subscriber has to be a licensed contractor and this information is checked when a customer applies to be a registrant. Mr. Cull said that a customer could fib at the counter as much as they could online and there is no way to control that until the inspector gets to the job. President Fillon said that the difference at the counter is that there are drawings at the table that the plan checker can look at and get a feel for. President Fillon stated that those drawings are with the City and can be referred to during the project to see what was agreed to. Ms. Lee said that the online permits that are simple electrical, plumbing and building permits do not require any plans at all. Commissioner Walker said that if plans are required then the customer has to come into the Department.
Commissioner Santos asked if there was a termite repair that required defining the anchors of the mudsill to the foundation could that permit be obtained online. Director Chiu said that the permit could be obtained online. Commissioner Santos said that if the customer were going to replace the foundation and had to show the cross section of the new footing then that permit could not be obtained online. Director Chiu said that if it required plans or drawings the customer would have to come into the Department to get the permit. Ms. Lee said that there is a check off list for the types of permits that can be obtained online. Commissioner Santos asked if eventually more difficult permits could be obtained. Ms. Lee said that this would take a great deal of time and the Department is trying to move forward on this issue. Director Chiu said that eventually when the technology is available and there are enough people to use it, the Department hopes to have an imaging system where a customer can submit plans though the Internet. Director Chiu said that only one city in the entire United States has this capability and right now that program is not successful because so far only two people use the system. Director Chiu said that the Department does not want to spend that kind of money at this time when the technology is not there and the user is not ready from a customer standpoint.
Commissioner D'Anne said that she wanted to compliment Ms. Lee because she is very knowledgeable about a variety of issues that come before the Commission; however, Commissioner D'Anne said that this is a MIS matter and asked if the MIS manager was still Marcus Armstrong. Ms. Lee answered yes, Mr. Armstrong is the MIS Manager for DBI. Commissioner D'Anne said that she wanted to know why when these presentations are given, the people who manage these departments do not make the presentations so that the Commission can ask them questions to make sure that they have the knowledge that they are supposed to have concerning these issues. Commissioner D'Anne said that she appreciated Ms. Lee's presentation, but said that she would like to hear from people directly overseeing these departments. Ms. Lee said that she spoke with the Director and they decided that Marcus has a more technical perspective on this issue. Ms. Lee said that she has been working very closely with Mr. Armstrong on this project as he is the project manager and as his direct manager, Ms. Lee said she decided to make a very general presentation. Ms. Lee said that in the past she had made several presentations on housing issues and certainly staff is available. Ms. Lee said that she and Director Chiu would take Commissioner D'Anne's comments into consideration and certainly make staff available at a later time, but certainly her making this presentation was not meant to circumvent anything. Ms. Lee said that it was more for presentation purposes as some staff might be a little bit nervous talking before the Commission.
Commissioner Walker asked about the security of the online permitting and said that it is probably as secure as the system. Ms. Lee answered, absolutely. President Fillon asked about public access for instance if a member of the public wanted to find out if there had been a permit pulled on a particular property. Ms. Lee said that the data feeds into the PTS system and it will show up as a W permit. Commissioner Walker said that she thought that President Fillon was asking about public access from a home computer. Ms. Lee said that the Department is trying to move toward that right now, but does not have that ability at present. Commissioner Walker asked when the online search would be available. Ms. Lee said that the Department's priority has been to get the online permitting going first so this item has not yet been discussed. Ms. Lee said that she thought that it would be within the next year.
President Fillon thanked the Department for its hard work and said that this online permitting is very exciting.
6. Report on Unlawful Demolition Committee and progress of the "working group". [Vice-President Hood]
President Fillon said that since Vice-President Hood was not present he would ask that one of the other committee members report on the progress. Commissioner Walker said that the Committee has not had another meeting, but the group that is out in the public gathering has met a couple of times to try and reduce the bulk of words. Commissioner Walker said that she would like to do a tickler to Vice-President Hood to schedule a meeting because there was a meeting scheduled that had to be changed. Commissioner Walker said that she would like to have a meeting before the next BIC meeting or at least within the next month.
7. Discussion of DBI funds allocated to St. Peter's Housing, Housing Rights Association and the Apartment House Association. [Assistant Director Lee]
Assistant Director Lee said that there was a slight error on her summary sheets and said she would go into that as she progressed with her report. Ms. Lee said that the report was in response to an earlier request by the Commissioners to discuss the particular apartment associations, Tides, St. Peter's Housing and Housing Rights in terms of the way DBI provides funds in exchange for the services provided. Ms. Lee said that the Tides Organization is the main organization, although they do not provide services, they subcontract out to St. Peter's Housing and Housing Rights. Ms. Lee said that for fiscal year 00-01 which just ended this past June, St. Peter's received $55,000; for the next fiscal year 01-02 the number should be $65,000 instead of $60,000 as indicated on the summary as this was a recent change made by the Program Manager in Housing Division. Ms. Lee said that St. Peter's Housing primarily tries to address the Spanish speaking community and the Mission area community regarding tenant issues. Ms. Lee said that Housing Rights in the past year received $80,000 and in the new fiscal year they are again receiving $80,000 and they try to deal with overall, without a specific area targeted, tenant issues in the City of San Francisco. Ms. Lee stated that the Apartment Associations received $25,000 last fiscal year and will receive $35,000 this fiscal year and they serve the apartment owner community. Ms. Lee said that their work is focused on primarily educating the landlord and how to deal with their tenants to try to avoid problems for DBI in the future. Ms. Lee said that the Chinatown Community Development Center was funded at $40,000 for last year and funding at $50,000 for this year; they serve the Chinatown area. Ms. Lee said that the Tenderloin Housing Clinic got $60,000 for last year and $70,000 for this year and they serve the Tenderloin Community area. Ms. Lee said that Baca Thier was funded $40,000 last year to help promote the Code Enforcement Outreach Program. Ms. Lee said that she had included some details in her package that show how money is spent, as there were concerns that DBI paid for high administrative costs and salaries. Ms. Lee used the Chinatown Community Development Center as an example that DBI is paying for .05 for a Senior Planner and the information shows how much DBI is paying for staff and for administrative costs. Ms. Lee said that this was a concern when DBI decided to distribute this contract to these different organizations and some organizations were not selected because they have high administrative costs or had all salary costs and could not justify that they would meet the needs of the program. Ms. Lee said that the organizations that were selected did an excellent job in justifying their costs and DBI felt that it was getting a lot of bank for its buck in this program. Ms. Lee said that these organizations provide monthly reports and meet monthly with the Housing Project Manager who is Jamie Sanbonmatsu. Ms. Lee said that she had enclosed minutes from some meetings and cases that the organizations have helped with.
Commissioner Guinnane said that on Baca Thier & Associates, in looking at a bill for July 1, 2000 in the amount of $3,333.34 and looking at the description of what they do he would like a better break down of what they do. Ms. Lee said that initially when the manager selected Baca Thier they were told that they could submit this kind of billing because their work was not so much case management like the other organizations, as the other organization could report that they handled so many cases in a particular month in a certain area, so this type of billing was agreed upon. Ms. Lee said that she would provide more information. President Fillon asked what Baca Thier was doing. Ms. Lee said that Baca Thier does the promotion of contracting key media about this program, such as radio blips on Chinese Radio, to let the residents of San Francisco know that this program exists instead of directly coming to DBI. Ms. Lee said that the object is to have problems solved prior to DBI's involvement. Commissioner Guinnane asked if Baca Thier was in conflict with the advertising that DBI does itself such as in the Independent. Ms. Lee said that DBI addresses DBI issues as a whole such as how well the Department has done in terms of inspection turnaround, permit turnaround and the revenues, but Baca Thier is primarily for the Code Enforcement Outreach Program. Commissioner Walker said that she wanted to commend Ms. Lee, Jamie Sanbonmatsu and the people who are doing this work as she said that she gets a lot of feedback from the public and the public tells her that they feel that they have a lot more access to the Department in trying to resolve issues. Commissioner Walker said that as far as she is concerned she felt that if these organizations needed anything else in order to better do their job, she would ask that those involved would call her as Commissioner Walker said she feels this is very important outreach. Commissioner Walker said that after being in the Litigation Committee she would rather see things resolved by this type of process than having to deal with it with a hammer. Ms. Lee said that she felt that it also helps with goodwill for the Department and these organizations should be commended because they do so much with so little. Ms. Lee said that the numbers that the Department gives to these organizations is so little, although last year it was increased by $100,000.
Commissioner Guinnane asked how much DBI spends on the advertising with the Asian newspapers and the different newspapers promoting the Department. Ms. Lee said that report was given at the last meeting and she would make sure Commissioner Guinnane received a copy as she did not have the numbers offhand. Commissioner Guinnane said that he was concerned about giving $40,000 to Baca Thier as maybe the Department could come along and use that money for its own outreach. Ms. Lee said that this was the reason the Department was still undecided about this current fiscal year. Ms. Lee said that the Department was probably going to have them do some advertising on buses or bulletins about the CEOP program. Ms. Lee said that right now this was under review. Commissioner Walker said that she would imagine that the CEOP promotion and advertising gets a lot of input from the people involved in providing the service. Commissioner Walker said that she thought that it was really important to continue so that DBI knows it is hitting the target it needs to hit. Ms. Lee said that there is a new brochure that is in different languages.
Commissioner D'Anne asked if Ms. Lee could explain the Tides fee. Ms. Lee said that she believed, but was not quite clear, that Housing Rights and St. Peter's do not have the administrative ability to be an independent non-profit, but Tides is a fiscal sponsor and does not really take any money, but is just sort of a pass through because Tides itself is a non-profit organization and serves as a sponsor. Commissioner D'Anne asked if they take a fee for their services. Ms. Lee said that it is a small percentage, actually 9%.
President Fillon asked for public comments.
Mr. Nick Pavalotos introduced himself as the Project Director for St. Peter's Housing Committee and said that he would like to clarify a couple of things. Mr. Pavalotos said that St. Peter's Housing is not a 501(c)(3) and their fiscal agent is the Tides Center; they do the bookkeeping for St. Peter's and they do get a standard 9% commission. Mr. Pavalotos said that the Housing Rights Committee is also a project of the Tides Center and the Tides Center takes a fiscal agent fee from the Housing Rights Committee. Mr. Pavalotos said that he understood that the concern of the Commission is the bang for the buck that DBI is getting for the amount of money that is allocated to these programs. Mr. Pavalotos said that to give the Commission an idea of the need in the communities, last year over the course of St. Peter's contract period they received 1,009 individual contacts around habitability issues and there is only one dedicated staff person that is being funded through this program. Ms. Pavalotos said that a lot of the work that happens to deal with habitability issues at St. Peter's is actually dealt with by staff members that are not being funded by the Department of Building Inspection. Mr. Pavalotos said that much of the work that happens is not just concerned with enforcement, but also concerns shaping policy within DBI to make the Department more responsive to community needs and in that arena Mr. Pavalotos said that he would like to commend Mr. Jamie Sanbonmatsu for working with the CEOP programs to make the Department more responsive. Mr. Pavalotos said that through CEOP the community does have a place at the table and are able to bring the concerns of the community through St. Peter's, HRC and with other programs, as the communities that are being served are minority communities for the most part who do not generally engage with government agencies for a variety of different reasons. Mr. Pavalotos said that the money that is being given allows those folks to have a voice. Mr. Pavalotos said that he would like to make just one more point and that was a point of protocol. Mr. Pavalotos said that when St. Peter's was notified that this agenda item was coming for hearing the organization did not receive a formal notice and was kindly informed by Commissioner Walker. Mr. Pavalotos said that if the Commission has concerns or questions about the program in the future they should be adequately notified so that the information can be presented.
Ms. Rebecca Logue-Bovee introduced herself as the Executive Director of the Housing Rights Committee. Ms. Logue-Bovee said that she wanted to echo a couple of statements that were made by Nick (Mr. Pavalotos). Ms. Logue-Bovee said that the funding pays for one and one-half staff persons and her organization sees over 600 clients per month and five other volunteer counselors are responsible for the work that gets done in the organization just on CEOP. Ms. Logue-Bovee said that this is a wonderful program and the Department should be really proud of it as it brings together people who provide services to tenants all over the City and the Apartment Owners Association. Ms. Logue-Bovee said that her organization has had incredible success working with the Apartment Owners Association to address issues, get repairs done and keep it out of DBI's caseload and for that she said that she thought the program was incredibly important. Ms. Logue-Bovee said that she felt that the program has given DBI a better look out in the community as they are doing something for people and people appreciate that.
Mr. Paul Hogarth introduced himself as being with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. Mr. Hogarth said that he was actually hired by the Housing Clinic about a year ago which was when they started through the Code Enforcement and Outreach Program and said that he would like to say that is has been a fantastic program. Mr. Hogarth said that they have drastically improved outreach into the residential hotels in the Tenderloin and South of Market area and have also begun doing outreach to apartment buildings in primarily Spanish speaking and Chinese speaking households. Mr. Hogarth said that through the CEOP program the Tenderloin Housing Clinic works both independently of DBI inspectors to reduce their case load and also work with Inspectors Sanbonmatsu, Sarkany, Dicks and other inspectors who cover that area to really help direct them to what properties are the problematic buildings in the area. Mr. Hogarth said that he believed that this program has made DBI a much more effective organization and has also, as Nick from St. Peter's mentioned earlier, helped with tenants who are reluctant to contact government agencies. Mr. Hogarth said that CEOP establishes a better trust in reaching out and getting these habitability problems addressed because a lot of tenants put up with pretty appalling living conditions. Mr. Hogarth said that with these tenants knowing that they have, whether it's the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in the Tenderloin or St. Peter's in the Mission, out there to help them to do Code Enforcement his agency would not be able to have a staff member like himself to do out in the field outreach if it wasn't for this funding. Mr. Hogarth said that he would strongly urge the Department to maintain this program.
Mr. Janan New introduced herself as Director of the San Francisco Apartment Association and said that her organization represents the rental housing owner component of the program. Ms. New said that she wanted to thank the Commission and DBI for their many years of support by granting them the funding to keep the program going. Ms. New said that the program is one of the better things that exist in San Francisco right now where instead of litigation and political arguments there are groups that are coming together and working together. Ms. New said that the Commissioners and the staff at DBI should be commended for this. Ms. New stated that the program has allowed her organization to communicate better, not only with the tenant groups which have had a broad reaching affect into many legislative arenas. Ms New said that recently an eviction proof prevention piece of legislation was passed that the San Francisco Apartment House Association helped author with the Housing Rights Committee to prevent evictions for capital improvement pass-throughs and Supervisor Ammiano got through the Board with an unanimous vote of his colleagues. Ms. New said that this happened because of the dialog that was opened up by DBI's creativity in taking some City funding, putting it into the non-profit private sector and allowing them to work together to resolve issues that not only saved the Department money but saved a lot of grief for owners and tenants in the long run.
An unidentified gentleman said that he would like to bring to the Commission's attention something that they might not see or hear from the organizations that have spoken. The gentleman stated that he worked at Mission Agenda, which is a community-based organization that deals with SRO issues. The gentlemen stated that Mission Agenda has a trust in the SRO community and in the homeless community. The gentleman said that not a week goes by that Mission Agenda does not refer somebody to each of those organizations as THC is working down on Sixth Street and cases are referred to Mr. Hogarth all of the time and people in the North Mission are referred to the Housing Rights Committee and St. Peter's on a weekly basis. The gentleman said that Mission Agenda cannot even work with tenants until they are sent to these organizations and stated that there is a ripple affect. This gentleman said that it brings the community into the overall picture of what is going on in the Commission hearings and DBI has a voice out in the community right now. The gentleman said that he has worked with DBI in other cities and said that he has never seen programs like this before and said that this is a great thing.
President Fillon thanked all of the organizations for coming to the meeting.
8. Review of Director's performance goals adopted under the Pay for Performance Program.
a. Public Comment on all matters pertaining to the Closed Session.
There was no public comment.
b. Possible action to convene a Closed Session.
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded Commissioner Santos that the Commission go into Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 049-01
c. CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957 and the San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.10(b).
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Director of the Department of Building Inspection - Mr. Frank Y. Chiu
d. Reconvene in Open Session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions
held in Closed Session (Administrative Code Section 67.10(b).
The Commission reconvened in open session.
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Guinnane that the Commission not reveal any of the discussion held in Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 050-01
9. 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.
a. Memo from Assistant Director Amy Lee to Director Chiu regarding reports for the BIC: 1) City Attorney Monthly Billing Summary for May 2001; 2) Revenue and Expenditure Report for May 2001.
b. Letter dated August 21, 2001 from Director Chiu to Gloria L. Young, Clerk of the Board regarding the status of residential hotel rooms lost to fire.
c. Memo dated August 16, 2001 from Clare M. Murphy, Executive Director of the Employees' Retirement System regarding a notice of announcing retirement board election.
d. Thank you letters received from the public commending DBI employees and Director Chiu's response letters to the public.
Commissioner Walker said that regarding item #9b she made a recommendation that the Commission form a task force that included people from the tenant community and the building owner community to actually talk about what sort of incentives would work to make this not as big of a problem. Commissioner Walker asked if this could be done officially. Commissioner D'Anne said that the City needs all of the housing it can get. President Fillon said that this item should be agendized.
10. Review and approval of the Minutes of the BIC meeting of June 20, 2001. [Vice- President Hood, Commissioner Marks, Commissioner Santos]
Commissioner Santos made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Marks, that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 051-01
11. Review and approval of the Minutes of the BIC meeting of July 18, 2001. [Vice- President Hood, Commissioner D'Anne, Commissioner Marks, Commissioner Santos, Commissioner Walker]
Commissioner Santos made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walker, that the minutes be approve with one change for clarification.. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 052-01
12. Review and approval of the Minutes of the BIC meeting of August 1, 2001. [Commissioner D'Anne, Commissioner Guinnane, Commissioner Marks, Commissioner Santos, Commissioner Walker]
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D'Anne, that the minutes be approve with one change for clarification.. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 053-01
13. 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.
Commissioner D'Anne stated that she had a concern because she felt that DBI is a very complex Department from her viewpoint. Commissioner D'Anne said she wondered if there was some way to assign a legislative or administrative analyst to the Commission or the Commissioners if they wished to get more information or to clear up some points. Commissioner Marks said that if Commissioner D'Anne had questions, she should call staff at DBI. President Fillon said that the Commissioners should go through the Director's Office. Commissioner Walker stated that if Director Chiu did not have the answer for a Commissioner he would refer the Commissioner to the proper staff member. President Fillon asked that the Commissioners not contact rank and file personnel directly as it is not fair to the staff member. Commissioner D'Anne thanked the Commission and said that she found some things confusing and just wanted to be able to get clarification. President Fillon said that was what the meetings were for and if Commissioner D'Anne wanted something agendized she should just make a request through the Secretary. President Fillon said that any of the Commissioners could always contact Ann Aherne to get any information at any time. Commissioner Guinnane said that Commissioner Guinnane could call the Director herself. President Fillon said that he wanted to point out that the Commission has a staff person that is dedicated to the Commission and now the Secretary has an assistant. President Fillon said that he would not mind having a policy analyst working for the Commission, but it would be kind of extravagant.
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.
Commissioner Walker said that the only item she was concerned about was the hotels/damaged units' incentive and would like that agendized. President Fillon said that maybe it could be a public endangerment ordinance because as soon as the word blight is mentioned people think about redevelopment and eminent domain. Commissioner Guinnane said that the City Attorney should be contacted about language for this type of legislation.
14. Adjournment.
Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walker that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC-054-01
The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
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Ann Marie Aherne Commission Secretary
SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS
Set up task force/committee to decide on force of action to get burned out buildings particularly SROs back on the housing market. - Commissioner Walker Page 14