Director Chiu said that item #3a was brought forward because a public member had questions about the properties at 879 Rhode Island Street and 820 DeHaro Street regarding plans that were issued to the projects and at the last meeting had stated that there were two or three sets of plans for each project.  Director Chiu said that with the process there is a site permit and when that is approved then addendums are issued for the structure and all of the details for the project.  Commissioner Guinnane said that there was some question about three or four sets of plans being issued and said that at the last meeting the Director tried to clarify that there is the site plan which is approved by Planning and then the project sponsor goes back for addendums which is the actual building itself and is structural.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he could not figure out where the public member would be confused.

Deputy Director Wong said that this matter had been resolved and stated that he had a discussion with Mr. John Carney regarding the two projects Mr. Carney was questioning.  Mr. Wong stated that he had the microfilm copies on both of these projects and Mr. Carney had questions when in looking at the front sheet of the plans it showed five revisions from the architectural office.  Mr. Wong said that Mr. Carney assumed that there were five sets of plans, but when Mr. Wong looked at the plans what happened is that in the site permit there were three revisions so that made for three, and then when the project sponsor came in with the addendums that accounted for four and five and that is why the office showed there were five revisions.  Mr. Wong said that everything is in order and there are only two sets of plans, one being the site permit, which was issued and was clearly marked “not for construction”.  Mr. Wong stated that there is a second set of plans for construction and they are in conformity with the architectural plans approved by City Planning and the addendum plans include the construction plans, which include the mechanical structure.  Mr. Wong said that everything looked good and he explained all of this to Mr. Carney who seems to be satisfied with it.  Mr. Wong said that he suggested to Mr. Carney that if he had questions such as this in the future that he discuss it with staff or himself personally and said that he would be happy to discuss it with Mr. Carney without having to bring it to the Commission.

Commissioner Guinnane asked how the members of the public have access to review or copies of the plans.  Mr. Wong said that these are all public documents and the public is always welcome to come to the Department to review the project even under review and the Plan Checker will meet with the public to go over the plans; City Planning has the same policy.  Mr. Wong said that the documents are all available for review, however State law prohibits them from copying the plans.

Mr. Wong said that Rhode Island Street and DeHaro were both cleared up with Mr. Carney.

Mr. John Carney said that he thought that DBI had done a tremendous job in researching this and said that someday he would understand the ins and outs of what has to be done.  Mr. Carney stated that he had reviewed many plans and staff has always been very cooperative.  Mr. Carney said that staff tries to do a good job, but are just drowned in reams and reams of paperwork.  Mr. Carney said that he now sort of understands it, but said that he probably would never understand it.

Commissioner Guinnane said that his only concern was that at the last meeting Mr. Carney made allegations about plans being submitted and in order to save a lot of time maybe Mr. Carney should just look at the final set that is approved by the City and County of San Francisco and then compare it with the building otherwise this is just a wild goose chase.  Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Carney was maintaining that there were five sets of plans and all kinds of irregularities and now it has turned out that this was not the case at all.  Mr. Carney said that he did not understand the addendum process and said that he apologized for any confusion.  Vice-President Hood said that the site permit and addendum process allows a builder, developer or homeowner to find out if they can actually build a building before they pay a structural engineer, an architect and all those other people to do the detailed drawing for construction.  Mr. Carney thanked the Commission and said that he now knew whom to contact with questions. 

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

Mr. John Carney said that he hated to bring back old history, but this issue went back to November 15, 2002 concerning 450 Rhode Island.  Mr. Carney said that this was where DBI staff refunded $60,000 because the project manager was not going to build the building.  Commissioner Guinnane said that it was more like $275,000 that was refunded.  Mr. Carney stated that one of the conditions was that the project sponsor did not have to repair the sidewalk that he had destroyed while he was digging up the dirt.  Mr. Carney said that this was in November 2002 and the property is still in the same condition.  Mr. Carney said that he would recommend that there be a number such as $50,000 that is refunded and the rest withheld until the site is brought back to its original condition.  Mr. Carney said that the money is still in escrow, but the builder will get the money someday.  Mr. Carney said that the owner was Mr. Kaufman and stated that everyone knew who Mr. Kaufman’s wife was.  Mr. Carney said he was not calling this favoritism, but said that it should be revisited again.  Vice-President Hood said that if it is a problem with the sidewalk then staff could report this to the Street and Sidewalks to see if they could take any action.  Mr. Carney said that DBI had the money. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked Deputy Director Hutchinson to speak on this as this was discussed at a previous meeting along with the conditions of the refund and one of them was to seal off the site with fencing and to install a proper walkway around the entire site.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if this was not done.  Mr. Hutchinson said he was involved because it was discussed at the Commission.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he toured the site and worked with DPW and it was his understanding that all conditions set by the Commission and acceptable to the City were met prior to the refund which was a huge check.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department looked at the property more than once to make sure it was in compliance.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the sidewalk issues were turned over to DPW and they granted approval for DBI that it met DPW’s parameters to issue a refund.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he could revisit that and come back to the Commission with some paperwork on it. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that would be a good idea because she was sure that Mr. and Mrs. Kaufman would not want to be accused of favoritism.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he would bring this back to the next meeting.

Mr. Carney said that the neighbors were told that the construction sidewalks would be removed within six months and the project would be under construction and that was on 11/25/2002.  Mr. Carney said that this project has finally gone though the Planning Department and the final drawings are being done.  Mr. Carney said that he was just suggesting that DBI until the problems are really solved.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the sidewalk was not walkable and if it was a cement sidewalk or a temporary sidewalk.  Mr. Carney stated that it was a cement sidewalk and when the soldier piling was put in for the foundation the sidewalk was chewed up right next to the sidewalk area.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how much of the sidewalk was chewed up, 1/3, 2/3 or 100%.  Mr. Carney said that it was anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 around the site so now there is a temporary walkway that is in the line of traffic.  Mr. Carney stated that the traffic people have come and turned all of the cars at right angles so there is only parking on one side.  Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Carney is saying that the sidewalk is damaged, but there is a temporary sidewalk in place.  Mr. Carney said that the temporary sidewalk is in place inside the curb where someone comes down the street and then all of a sudden they have to move over twelve feet to get around.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if this section was fenced off.  Mr. Carney said it was fenced off under all of the requirements, but it isn’t like it is permanent and could stay there for another twenty years.  President Fillon said that the Department would look into this matter.

Presentation and discussion of DBI’s Strategic Plan. [Assistant Director Amy Lee and Special Assistant to the Director Ken Harrington]

Mr. Ken Harrington from the Director’s Office said that the Commissioners had a draft of the Strategic Plan in front of them.  Mr. Harrington stated that the Controller’s Office criticized the Department for having an inadequate Strategic Plan and the Grand Jury chimed in as well so this is an attempt to come up with a current and adequate Strategic Plan.  Mr. Harrington said that he and Assistant Director Lee worked on this with Director Chiu and the Deputy Directors.  Mr. Harrington stated that this was just a draft of what they thought were adequate guiding tenants and the three main goals that address enforcement of the Codes that being effective, efficient, fair and safe and at the end of the document is a three-year projection.  Mr. Harrington said that he would like to have the Commissioners look at this draft between now and the next meeting and he would attempt to contact the Commissioners before the next meetings for any changes, deletions, corrections, additions or comments.  Mr. Harrington said that the Department hoped to come up with a final draft that could be addressed at the next meeting. 

Assistant Director Lee said that the Department had been working on this policy for some time now and just because this is in draft form it does not mean that the Department has been working without any guidance, policy or overall mission.  Ms. Lee said that she did want to reiterate that all of the information in the draft was gathered from meetings with every single Manager within the Department and input from staff as well as trying to incorporate the Commissioners past comments regarding Strategic Planning.  Ms. Lee said that this draft is now in the standardized format that other City agencies have in terms of how does the Strategic Plan meet with the goals and performance measures and the objectives, as there is a format that needs to be followed in terms of good public policy practices.  President Fillon said that all of these are in place, but this is just tying it all together.   Ms. Lee said that was correct and said there were some new items in terms of fairness to incorporate some of the things such as preferential treatment.  Ms. Lee said that this was being formalized and said that she wanted to emphasize that many departments have outside consultants that do this full time for a whole year.  Ms. Lee stated that this has been delayed because this Department has had a lot of work to do especially with the budget crisis, the Grand Jury Investigation and other things so some of Management’s time got sidetracked along the way.

President Fillon said that the Commissioners could look at this for the next few weeks and get back to the Department with comments, but what happens with this document after that.  Ms. Lee said that the Department would formalize and publish it officially by the City publisher, the same people who print DBI’s annual reports, and give it to DBI staff.  Ms. Lee said that then Management would meet with staff to make sure everyone is following the plan and Executive Management would continue to monitor it.  Ms. Lee said that it would be updated every year and would be distributed to the Board of Supervisors and the public.  Ms. Lee said that recently the Efficiency Plan that was passed is tied into this Strategic Plan.  President Fillon asked if this was something that would be presented directly to the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor’s Office.  Ms. Lee said that it would not be something that would be given in terms of a presentation, but it would be one of the things marked off of the checklist that the Board said that the Department needed to do.  President Fillon stated that he was interested in this as a tool to get it out there to the public at large to let the public know what the Department is doing. 

Vice-President Hood said that she thought that one of the main perceived public problems had been with DBI’s computer systems being out or not being able to file on the net.  Vice-President Hood said she thought there should be a section on communications because this would be the background for making a lot of other things work well.  Vice-President Hood stated that she did not think there was enough emphasis on the computer system.  Ms. Lee said that she wanted more feedback and stated that some of it was addressed in terms of the automation requirements, in terms of efficiency.  Ms. Lee said that coupled with the annual Strategic Plan there was a three-year projection and in that projection some of the automation was incorporated.  Vice-President Hood said that it did not contain somebody in MIS writing down a program for what MIS should be doing.  Vice-President Hood stated that she was really disappointed that this was not in the plan because there has been so much criticism about this that it has been a source of embarrassment and the way it has been handled has subjected the Department and the Commission to fraud and deceit and bad publicity.  Vice-President Hood said that not writing down what the system needs to do as a first step just seems to be a very important part of the Strategic Plan.  Vice-President Hood said that she would like to see a chapter added on this, as it is absolutely critical.

Commissioner Guinnane asked who did spot checks.  Ms. Lee said that the spot checks are done by Senior Plan Checkers or Inspectors as well Managers.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to up the spot check numbers especially on the outside field spot-checking.  Ms. Lee said that it was now 5%.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the number could be changed from one to ten, but change the dollar amount that would step in so it would focus on bigger projects and not just a kitchen remodel.  Commissioner Guinnane said he was concerned about ADA compliance.

Commissioner Guinnane asked about the issue of increasing the number of low pressure boilers located and registered as mandated by the City ordinance.  Commissioner Guinnane said that was very confusing to him because when he thinks about boilers he thinks about boilers in high rises and big hotels and this really gets into small apartment houses where there are two storage tanks tied in together.  Vice-President Hood said it would be helpful to have some information added to this section, because if the Commissioners as technical people don’t understand it then the general public won’t understand it.  Commissioner Guinnane thought it was very vague.

Ms. Lee asked if the Commissioners wanted to go over the Strategic Plan very quickly and then come back in a few weeks with comments.  Vice-President Hood said she thought it had been covered enough and thought that this should keep moving with the Commissioners sending ideas into the Department and then having the entire Commission approving it.  Ms. Lee said it would be helpful if the Commissioners had comments to send to Mr. Harrington then the Department could summarize all of the BIC’s comments and then staff would be able to speak to the suggestions.

President Fillon thanked staff for their efforts on this issue.

Discussion and possible action to amend the regular meeting schedule of the Building Inspection Commission to the First and Third Monday of each month at 9:00 a.m. in Room 400, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place.  [Director Frank Chiu]

Director Chiu said that as mentioned at the last meeting the Commission Secretary went ahead and secured Room 400 at 9:00 a.m. for the first and third Mondays of each month for the BIC meetings with the first meeting to start in February.  Director Chiu said that this would require action by the Commission to change the date and time of the meeting.

Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos to change the BIC regular meetings to Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. at City Hall in Room 400, such meetings to take place on the first and third Mondays of each month.

Commissioner Marks asked if there could be some discussion on this item.  President Fillon said that it had been discussed extensively at the last meeting, but he would allow discussion. Commissioner Marks said that the Commission had been talking about how it would be easier for the public if the Commission could schedule these meetings in the evening.  Commissioner Marks said she thought it was important to have the meetings at a more opportune time for the public to participate and the original thinking of having the meetings televised was so that the public would feel more confident about the operations of the Department.  Commissioner Marks stated that any allegations made were activities that could not even be presented at a Commission meeting to allay people’s feelings that certain customers are getting preferential treatment.

Commissioner Guinnane said that at the last meeting there were a couple of meeting times floating around and one was Friday afternoons and the other was Monday mornings so obviously the Friday did not pan out.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he did not think that going on TV was going to do much to quell people’s fears that there is favoritism in the Department, but this is just basically to televise what the Commissioners do and the policies and procedures of the Department.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he would love to have another day other than Monday morning, but this is the only day that the Commission can get so he would recommend that the BIC take this date and if it can be moved at another time down the road then it can be moved, but right now the Commission is stuck with Mondays.  President Fillon asked Commissioner Marks if there were any reasons why Commissioner Brown could not make the Monday morning meetings or did he give Commissioner Marks any reasons.  Commissioner Marks said that if the meetings are set for Monday mornings then Commissioner Brown will make every effort to attend, but it was just in general that it would be easier for the public to make the meetings in the evening.  Vice-President Hood said that this was the thought when the Commission first began in 1995, and there were several evening meetings where actually nobody came.  Vice-President Hood said that she would personally prefer to have the meetings in the evening because she ends up loosing half a day for this meeting, but it turned out that the public really did not want to come at night.  President Fillon said that when there is an agenda item that the public is interested in they would come no matter when the meeting is held.  Vice-President Hood said that she thought that there was a general perception out in the public that this Board doesn’t do good things and doesn’t address its responsibilities with respect to the Building Department and the public and making that transparent to the public will enable them to make their decisions based on what is going on rather than what is said in a newspaper which may be biased.  Vice-President Hood said that the transparency of it is very important.  President Fillon said he thought it would help.

Secretary Aherne said that she wanted Commissioner Marks to know that a request was put into City Hall for any day, time, room or whatever in order to get these meetings televised and even when it came down to Fridays there was no guarantee that any particular Friday would be available for a meeting so it came down to Monday mornings.  President Fillon said that the bottom line was that the meetings needed to be televised and said it was a great idea because the Commission does a lot of good and the public does not see that.    President Fillon asked for a vote.

The vote was as follows:

President Fillon
Vice_President Hood
Commissioner D’Anne
Commissioner Guinnane
Commissioner Marks
Commissioner Santos

Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes

The motion carried on a vote of four to two.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 051-03

Secretary Aherne said that she would be sending all of the Commissioners information about protocol for the televised meetings.

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

Ms. Taras Madison said that the Commissioners had the proposed budget for 2004/2005 for the Building Inspection Department in front of them.  Ms. Madison said that the first six months revenues of this year were used to make some projections for next year and there was an expenditure package with an actual summary of all of the expenditures comparing it to expenditures of last year by line item and by program.  Ms. Madison said that were some details of each item by program and then attached to that there was more information at the division level for some of the big-ticket items. 

Ms. Madison said that the budget was based on the goals of the Department, which is actually efficient services, effective services, and fair and safe enforcement of Codes and also provision of services.  Ms. Madison stated that last fiscal year when there was some discussion about transferring funds to other Departments the Commission said that in light of what was going on what were some of the priorities in DBI and what things does this Department need to do.  Ms. Madison said that for the past three or four fiscal years DBI had been pretty frugal when it was noticed that the revenues were going down so the Department has now identified some priorities.  Ms. Madison said that there was a cover memo showing some of the priorities that the Commission and the Department agreed that this Department would need to undertake, such as vehicles, technology improvements, training, workplace safety, some things with the lead ordinance enforcement as well as a variety of other things.  Ms. Madison said that these would be most of the increases in the budget. 

Ms. Madison said that City-wide the budget is due on February 20 and the Department has to get the budget to the Controller’s Office by February 20 who will then send it to the Mayor’s Office by March 1 and then because DBI is a Special Fund Department the budget will actually go to the Board by May 1 and the entire City budget should be passed by the end of July. 

Ms. Madison said that the revenues that have been collected through July through December 2003 have been doing very well so based on these revenues the projected revenue for the year is $33.4M.  Ms. Madison said that the Department is only projecting $29.2M.  Ms. Madison said that every fiscal year the Department is a usually a little bit more conservative regarding the projected revenue so there will be a more conservative budget of $32M the reason being that sometimes some of the figures are overstated.  Ms. Madison stated that the Department does want to project too much.  Commissioner Guinnane asked what was pushing up the income from the actual number and asked if it was permits or revenue generated from the City Attorney’s Office.  Ms. Madison answered that it was actually revenue generated from the City Attorney’s Office and also the apartment license fees have been pushed up.  Ms. Madison said that the Department has been doing very well with building permits and has already collected over $6M so if this was straight lined it would appear that the Department would collect another $6M so she has a call in to make sure that there may have been a few large projects that have come in.  Ms. Madison said that the income is from the Code Enforcement, the apartment license fee and also the building permits and the plan check revenues.

Commissioner Guinnane asked that in looking at Code Enforcement and assuming that the Department spends $800,000 in legal fees what is brought in for the $800,000.  Ms. Madison said that this has been a good year as it is usually $600,000.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he was after the figures about if the Department spends $1 in the City Attorney’s Office does the Department get back $2.  Ms. Madison said that hasn’t been the case and normally the Department spends $2 in the City Attorney’s Office and maybe gets back $1.  Ms. Madison reported that the Department’s current work order is about $2M for the City Attorney’s Office.  Commissioner Guinnane said that there were some cases that the Department spent a lot of money on and he did not know what the return was going to be.  Ms. Madison said that was all she had to report on the revenues. 

Ms. Madison stated that she was going to report on the expenditures for DBI.  Commissioner Guinnane asked about the temporary salaries because there was a big drop on the three and four year positions.  Commissioner Guinnane asked why there was so much overtime since permits and inspections were down and was it for nighttime or weekend inspections.  Ms. Madison said it was for the off-hour inspections such as life safety; although this is the amount that is budgeted overtime has actually gone down over the past two fiscal years.  Ms. Madison stated that it was high at one point when DB I was open on Saturdays, but it has now gone down.  Ms. Madison said that electrical does a lot of inspections off-hours when they are doing the safety buildings.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the training was for the Building and Housing Inspectors and the Engineers with in-house training.  Ms. Madison said that it could be in-house or outside training.  Ms. Madison said that most of the Departments have someone come in to do all of the training at once, but there is some outside training. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked for a breakdown of the budgeted amount for Professional Services.  Ms. Madison said that Professional Services includes the Code Enforcement Outreach Program. 

President Fillon said that there was $300,000 due to continued decreases in MIS contracts.  Ms. Madison said that none of them were for MIS, but it is money for disciplinary hearings, the Code Enforcement Outreach Program and title reports.  Ms. Madison said that these title reports are reports that cannot be received from the Assessor’s Office because DAD cases have to get the real title reports.  Ms. Madison said that here was money allotted for scanning other special reports.  Ms. Madison said that most of the MIS monies are included in equipment and materials and supplies, all the hardware.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how much was set aside for the title reports.  Ms. Madison reported that the total amount was $18,000; DAD and Housing have requested that money.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the total amount of prelims was 100 from DAD and asked again how much was allocated.  Ms. Madison said that the number would go down from $18,000 and should be a little over $5,000. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked what the $377,000 for materials and supplies would cover.  Ms. Madison said that materials and supplies are actually $724,000.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he was looking at the year-to-date figure.  Ms. Madison said that DBI is replacing all kinds of computers, flat screen monitors and this amount included safety supplies such as boots.  Ms. Madison said that bulk of that money was for MIS materials and supplies.  Commissioner Guinnane asked why MIS was not separate.  Ms. Madison said that this is the Department-wide budget and the details of the budget show what each division is actually requesting. 

Commissioner Guinnane said that last year there was $250,000 allocated to the Fire Department and the agreement was that they would put a couple of Plan Checkers into DBI to check the plans for the hotels downtown for the sprinkler ordinance.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if this ever happened.  Ms. Madison said that the money was placed there, but said that she did not know if someone from DBI was working with the Fire Department. 

President Fillon said that the equipment budget was going from $0 to over $1M.  Ms. Madison stated that every year the equipment is $0, but this year there is a lot of MIS equipment listed such as servers and one server could cost $145,000 and DBI is requesting three or four servers.  Ms. Madison said that this also includes the Department’s twenty replacement vehicles.  Ms. Madison stated that the Department’s vehicles are in desperate need of replacement because DBI spends a great deal of money repairing old vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that most of the vehicles are as old as 1992 and the Department has lost vehicles because of maintenance problems and DBI still has some 1989 Plymouth Reliants in the fleet.  Ms. Madison said that the new vehicles would be CNG or hybrid vehicles and this is dictated by the Controller’s Office.  Ms. Madison said that $25,000 has been budgeted for each vehicle. 

Commissioner Guinnane said that in looking at the transfers from last year to Planning, the Environment and other departments it was about $3.6M and asked what the actual DBI surplus was right now.  Ms. Madison said that the actual surplus is only $3M.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if that $3M was actually earned or is it money that has come in, but not yet earned.  Ms. Madison said that this was money that was earned, and the money in the deferred credit was about $6M.  Ms. Madison said that another deferred credit report would have to be done to determine how much of that money has been earned.  Ms. Madison said that the total surplus amount is close to $10M.  Commissioner Guinnane asked Ms. Madison how many cars she thought the Department actually needed to resolve the problem with the old cars.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had asked about the shop fees for the vehicles a few months ago and said that it was absolutely crazy.  President Fillon said that the Department could use as many cars as it could get. Ms. Madison said that she would agree and stated that DBI probably needed more than twenty cars, but the Department is just being reasonable and did not want to have a $2M equipment budget.  Ms. Madison said that the head of Central Shops told her that DBI should have been more progressive in replacing vehicles so now the Department is at a catch up stage.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Commission could take some action to resolve that problem to put a date on the vehicles to retire them and acquire new vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that similar to any expenditure it would have to be approved by the Commission and then it has to go through the budget process and be approved by the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor.  Ms. Madison stated that once it was approved it could be placed in the budget.  President Fillon asked if the Department was required by the City to purchase a particular type of vehicle.  Ms. Madison said that the City has a list of acceptable vehicles and all vehicles have to be CNG or hybrids, a clean vehicle.  Ms. Madison said that in this year’s budget the Department is purchasing five replacement vehicles and those will be hybrids.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how much money had been allocated for new vehicles.  Ms. Madison reported that it was $475,000.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how many vehicles that would purchase.  Ms. Madison said that would be twenty vehicles.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how many vehicles were in the DBI fleet.  Ms. Madison said that there were about one hundred eight at present.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how many of these cars were older than 1999.  Ms. Madison said that at least 80% of the cars, if not more were beyond 1999 because the Department has not purchased any new vehicles for the past three years.  Ms. Madison said there were more 1992 vehicles than any other. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to put it on the calendar for the next meeting to review the vehicles in DBI and the mileage on them to see which vehicles could be sold off and determine how many new vehicles to buy.  Commissioner Guinnane said that this would be a top priority.

President Fillon said that the temporary salaries item mentions that the increase is primarily attributed to the Port Project and asked what that was about.  Ms. Madison said that the San Francisco Port and DBI just recently signed an MOU and DBI is going to be working with the Port on a variety of projects.  Ms. Madison said that the Port is going to need DBI’s assistance in doing most of the inspections and in reviewing the actual plans.  Ms. Madison said that instead of bringing in new permanent positions because of what is going on with the Port Project DBI decided that instead of increasing the total number of total positions, the Department would just increase the funds and when the money actually comes in from the Port, DBI could hire temporary salaries.  Ms. Madison reported that some of the projects at the Port are the Broadway Hotel, the Bryant Street Towers, the Cruise terminal development piers, the Women’s Museum and the Rincon Park Restaurant.  Ms. Madison stated that these are projects that are going to be built on Port property, but the Port does not have some of the expertise to do their own plan checking.  President Fillon asked what the Department would be using as a pool to get people to fill these temporary positions and would it be retired people that are coming back or would it be new people.  Ms. Madison said that it could be both, but the advantage would be that DBI does not have to hire these people until they are needed for a particular project and they would not be permanent employees.  Commissioner Santos asked if the temporary people would be contract employees like those receiving a 1099 at the end of the year, or would they be an employee of DBI.  Assistant Director Amy Lee said that it would be an employee of DBI and would allow for a lot of flexibility with the expertise of employees.  Ms. Lee said that DBI had a signed M.O.U. with the Port that delineates a substantial amount of fees.  President Fillon asked if these positions were fully benefited.  Ms. Lee answered that the employees would not receive benefits until after six months of employment.   

Commissioner Guinnane asked if DBI would be getting the compensation back from the Port.  Ms. Lee said yes, there was a M.O.U. in place.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if DBI got 100% back.  Ms. Lee said that it was not 100%, but was a negotiated amount.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if DBI spent $1 would DBI be getting back half.  Director Chiu said that DBI gives the Port a break because the permit fee is based on valuation and DBI receives 100% of what it spends, but gives the Port a break on the valuation so the Port are charged perhaps 75% or 85% of the valuation, but DBI is not losing money.  Commissioner Santos said that there would not be a markup on the charges.  Director Chiu said that this would be monitored to be cost effective and cost efficient, but the Department would not be making that much money.  Ms. Lee stated that the reason the Department is doing this, because she did not want it perceived that there was some sort of private markup, but unlike with the Port DBI has less Administrative support with customer complaints, records retention and such things as records requests.  Ms. Lee said that all of those services that have to be provided to the private consumer do not have to be provided to the Port and that is where some of the savings come in; it is not a markup.

Commissioner Santos asked if the Port approached DBI on this because the Port does not have the resources to do their own plan checking.  Director Chiu said that in the past DBI helped the Port out with Pier 39 and recently in the past few years when the SBC Ballpark was under construction DBI helped out with plan checking and inspections so this is not the first time the Department has done this.  Commissioner Santos asked what DBI got out of this besides helping build these wonderful civic projects.  Director Chiu said that staff does take pride in their part in these sorts of projects and at the same time any time a sister City agency needs a hand DBI likes to be able to respond.  President Fillon said that these are the people the Department should be helping, but should also take care to cover costs. 

Commissioner Santos said that his concern was that these projects are very technically challenging and so some of the most qualified, experienced Plan Checkers will be used for these projects so that leaves a bit of a gap on the regular permits that DBI deals with. 

Deputy Director Hutchinson reported that the Port has its own Building Department and currently the Senior Inspector is Tony Greco who worked with DBI.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that a lot of DBI’s inspections would be supplemented by Port staff so there are qualified people at the Port who can work with DBI personnel.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he could put a full time employee out at the Port and bring in a retired Building Inspector so the Department does not have to get two full time positions.  Mr. Hutchinson said that in the long term he thought it would save the Department money. 

Commissioner Guinnane said that he had a question about 1660 Mission and the expenditure of $472,000 for building and operating expenses. Ms. Madison said that prior to last fiscal year, which is this current fiscal year, every year the Department would budget money not only in the surcharge because the surcharge actually covers the debt service on the building, but the Department would budget money for the maintenance and operation of 1660 Mission.  Ms. Madison said that in this current fiscal year that was actually deleted from the budget, per the Mayor’s Office and the amount is back in for next fiscal year.  Ms. Madison said that this is for security and operations at 1660 Mission. Commissioner Guinnane said that if DBI pays a fee to the Department of Real Estate for the building itself then why does the Department pay for the operating expenses such as security.  Ms. Madison answered that the fee that DBI is paying for the building is actually the surcharge, which goes directly to Real Estate, and it was her understanding that the surcharge is only covering the debt service.  Commissioner Guinnane thanked Ms. Madison for her presentation.

Ms. Madison said that normally at this point the Commission has a Budget Committee that meets if there are any other questions to be discussed.  Secretary Aherne said that she had reserved a room for Monday if the Committee wanted to hold a meeting and the Committee consisted of President Fillon, Vice-President Hood and Commissioner Marks.  Ms. Lee said that if the Commissioners had no questions there was no need for a meeting.  Secretary Aherne said that Ms. Madison could bring the answers to the Commissioners questions back to the next meeting and then the budget would be heard twice, which is the requirements.  Commissioner Guinnane said that his only concern was the cars and if he could work with the Department to figure out the proper number to allocate because he thought the number should be doubled or tripled and if DBI doesn’t use the money then it will be allocated to Planning, Fire or the Environment.  Ms. Madison said that the Department appreciated that Commissioner Guinnane wanted the Department to have as many vehicles as it needs, but wanted to caution the Commission that the transfer to other departments had already been included in the budget so DBI is already at $37M so if another twenty cars is added there is only so much money in the surplus to make up the difference between the revenues.  President Fillon said that he thought that it was always good to keep a little money in the bank.  Vice-President Hood said that she thought the Department should use the money to buy more cars before the money was given away.  Vice-President Hood asked for a report on the age of the vehicles and the maintenance costs.  Commissioner Guinnane asked what amount was paid to City shops for the vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that DBI spent $161,000 last year on maintenance and repairs.  Commissioner Guinnane said that $161,000 would buy five or six cars.  Ms. Madison said that she would put the numbers together to purchase twenty more vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that $25,000 was the amount that was budgeted for each car.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if when the City and County of San Francisco buys a car is there sales tax.  Ms. Madison said that she did not think there was sales tax, but the Department budgets $25,000 and it is Central Shops that buys all of the City cars.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if Central Shops puts a markup on the cars.  Ms. Madison said that they are not allowed to do that.  Commissioner Guinnane said that $25,000 without any tax or license fees seems like a lot for a small car.  Ms. Lee said that the company that supplies the cars to Central Shops has to comply with all of the City requirements such as domestic partners and other issues.  President Fillon said that Central Shops also put all of the City emblems on the new vehicles.  Ms. Madison said that she would check with Central Shops before the next meeting to get exact amounts and what it covers.  Commissioner Guinnane asked for a list of all DBI vehicles, the year and the mileage.

Secretary Aherne asked if the budget was going to be discussed at the regular February meeting or if there was going to be a Budget Committee meeting.  Commissioner Marks said that she was going to be out of town for the first two weeks in February.  It was decided that there would be no Budget meeting.  Secretary Aherne stated that a room was reserved for February 11, 2004 in case a Special Meeting would be required.

There was no public comment on this item.

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..

Letter dated January 9, 2004 from Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson to Mr. John M. Kelly regarding Mr. Kelly’s inquiries about two shelters.

Letter dated January 15, 2004 from Linton Dunn Stables, III to President Alfonso Fillon tendering his resignation from the Access Appeals Commission.

Letter dated January 7, 2004 from Dan Tuttle to the Building Inspection Commission regarding corruption in City Hall

Anonymous letter dated January 5, 2004 to President Fillon, Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson and Planner Mary Woods regarding safety hazard and/or violation at 318 – 22^nd Avenue.

Memorandum dated December 30, 2003 from Human Resources Director Andrea R. Gourdine to All Appointing Officers regarding Notice of Employees’ Rights & Responsibilities Under Whistleblower Laws.

Copies of thank you letters received from the public commending DBI employees and Director Chiu’s response letters to the public.

President Fillon said that he would like to thank Linton Stables for his service to the Access Appeals Commission.  President Fillon stated that Mr. Stables is resigning because he is moving to New York.  Secretary Aherne reminded the Commission that Mr. Stables seat on the AAC would have to be replaced.  Commissioner Guinnane asked what were the qualifications for that seat.  President Fillon said that he believed that Mr. Stables was an architect.  Secretary Aherne said that the Commission has not had a lot of success in sending out mass mailings in order to fill the AAC and other committee vacancies.  President Fillon said that it is very difficult.

Commissioner Marks said that she was concerned about items c and d because once again there were allegations of the Department not responding to inquiries.  President Fillon said that item d was not clear, and asked the Director if the Department had responded to item c.  Director Chiu said that he had asked Deputy Director Hutchinson to check into the situation and follow up with Mr. Tuttle.  Mr. Hutchinson said that typically the Director’s office gives an inquiry such as this to the program manager, which in this case was himself, and Mr. Hutchinson stated that he has asked the Senior Inspector and the Chief to work with him on a response.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he recalled that Chenery Street was a very controversial project and typically on many occasions on projects that have been approved the neighbors that are upset with them do not give up at that point and they make allegations throughout the construction.  President Fillon said that he just wanted to make sure that the Department was responding to this individual and that there was a paper trail to that effect.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he would include this in the communication items for the next meeting.

Commissioner Marks said that with item c there was an allegation that there was a rear extension without a permit and said that the citizen is still complaining that she had contacted two inspectors and the violation still exists.  Secretary Aherne said that the letter is anonymous so there is no way to respond to anyone.  Director Chiu said that the Department still responds and investigates any safety issues whether anonymous or not. 

President Fillon asked about the whistleblower posting.  Director Chiu said that it has been posted and the Personnel Division makes sure that every employee is aware of this issue.

President Fillon said that he wanted to commend those employees that had received letters from the public for their service.  Director Chiu stated that the letters had been received on behalf of James Vanya, Laurence Kornfield, and Eric Dickson. 

There was no public comment on these items.