Building Inspection Commission (BIC)

BUDGET & ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE

Committee Meeting of January 20, 1998

Adopted January 29, 1998

1660 Mission Street, Room 6034, San Francisco, CA 94103

MINUTES

The meeting of the BIC Budget & Organization Committee was called to order at 10:20 a.m. by Chair Vasquez.

1.	ROLL CALL - Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified.

COMMISSION MEMBERS/STAFF PRESENT:

Armando Vasquez, Chair	Mona Cereghino, Vice-Chair

Maria Banico, Commission Secretary

D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:

Frank Chiu, Director

William Wong, Deputy Director for Inspection Services

Carla Johnson, Assistant to the Director

Paulette Hooey, Manager for the Administrative Services Division

2.	Report, discussion and possible action on the proposed budget of the Department of Building Inspection for Fiscal Year 1998-99.

Director Chiu said that at the previous Committee Meeting, the proposed expenditures were about $1.5 million over the projected revenues. To reconcile the budget, requested new staff positions were reduced from 32 to 24. This was reflected in the revised budget proposal distributed for this meeting. The department will continue to look for further cuts particularly in new equipment such as news cars or the emergency response vehicle.

Commissioner Cereghino said that she was told that there had been a moratorium on hiring for a couple of years. Also, surplus funds have accrued and that this amount was substantial. She asked if this fund can be used.

Director Chiu said yes and no. The fund has to be set aside because it is for prepaid services rather than surplus. The guideline from the Mayor's Office is that each department may budget expenditures only up to its projected revenues for that year.

Commissioner Cereghino said that she is concerned that this surplus fund will evolve into the general fund and other departments can tap into it.

Director Chiu said that this fund has to stay with the department. State law does not allow other departments to tap into this fund. He said that last year, even though the department generated more revenues than projected, the department was not allowed to expend the additional revenues. This year, the department is hoping to provide service enhancements based on the projected revenues.

Commissioner Cereghino said that she would like to see a report on these reserve or surplus funds sometime in the future. She asked for a ballpark figure and description of intended uses.

Chair Vasquez said that he would also like to see such a report. He then asked for a summary of the changes made from the last budget draft.

Ms. Carla Johnson identified the positions cut from previous budget draft.

Chair Vasquez read out the staffing request for each program and said that the Administration Program's write-up does not reconcile with the staffing request summary sheet. There were still discrepancies in the second draft. He said the summary sheet should be revised to correctly reflect the appropriate new staff positions for each program.

Director Chiu said that the 1374 Special Assistant was put in the Administration Program (Director's Office) because this person will serve as the Disabled Access ombudsperson and will assist the Director by enhancing the department's community outreach efforts, representing the department at Boards and Commissions, and handling routine press inquiries.

Ms. Roberta Caravelli, Citizen Review, said that she hopes that the Mayor's Office or the Board of Supervisors will not approve a request for a manager who supervises only two or three subordinate staff members. She understands that the department is trying to avoid lawsuits. However, she is sad that other things are being left behind. She requested that the Committee think about quality control issues and how to prevent issuance of illegal permits.

Director Chiu agreed that there was a need to make the staffing descriptions more clear. He said that the ombudsperson might later be moved from the Director's Office to another program such as the Plan Check Division. Mr. Chiu then referred to the item on Project Management in the Administration Program. He said that this program will be managed by a 5504 Project Manager II. He said that this classification is not flexible and he would like to change the classification to a 1374 Special Assistant XV. The salaries for both positions are about the same.

Commissioner Vasquez said that at the previous meeting he had raised the need for more explanation on the 13 temporary positions for Project Management. He said that he did not understand until it was explained to him at the meeting that the temporary staff would backfill for current staff who would then be assigned to the major projects.

Director Chiu the proceeded to point out the various changes in requested expenditures for each program. He said that the projected overtime for the CPC division could be cut since there were two new positions being requested for this division.

Commissioner Vasquez said that the budgeted expenditures were still over the projected revenues by about half a million dollars.

Director Chiu said that he would look into the equipment expenditures and look for additional cuts for the next budget meeting.

Ms. Paulette Hooey, Manager of Administrative Services, said that there were also adjustments that needed to be made on the expenditure side. There were errors in the totals. She then went through the changes on expenditures other than salaries.

Commissioner Vasquez requested a summary report to the BIC on the final amount for tenant improvements on 1650 Mission Street.

In response to Commissioner Vasquez's question, Director Chiu said that some divisions will move to 1650 Mission Street on February 3, 1998.

During the discussions on the expenditures for the Permit Services Program, Commissioner Vasquez said that there should be more justification provided for staff overtime. The budget proposal shows more than $300,000 allocated for overtime over last year's budget.

Director Chiu said that during the past years, the Mayor's Office did not allow increases in the overtime budget. Last year's allocated budget for overtime was unrealistic. The department spent over $300,000 for overtime due to increase in workload. He said that there could be cuts in overtime in the Permit Services Program. However, in the Inspection Services Program, the proposed budget is for after hours inspections.

Ms. Hooey said that the budget item for off-site storage rental is new for this year. This is used mostly by the Records Management Division and other divisions to warehouse old documents. This item used to be included in the operating budget. She added that budget allocations were increased to account for the upcoming code cycle and the bring the City Attorney's budget closer to actual expenditures. She said that there is a choice on the City Attorney's budget, the department can use the amount requested by the City Attorney or the amount she has projected based on the monthly billing reports for the last six months. The City Attorney's figure is slightly higher than DBI's projection.

Commissioner Vasquez said that the DBI projection should be used.

Director Chiu said that the overtime budget can be cut by about $100,000. He would look more closely at the overtime allocation for the Permit Services Division in the plan check areas.

Ms. Hooey continued to detail the corrections and explanations for the non-staff expenditure increases. She said that the mandatory fringe benefits amount is incorrect and needs to be recalculated.

Director Chiu said that he would look at the $300,000 budgetted for MIS Professional Services and see if there is room for adjustment. He also said that he would also look into $219,000 budget for Microfilm Services to see if this can be reduced. Finally, he said the budget item for laptops computers could be eliminated.

Director Chiu summarized the major cuts identified so far and said that it appears that the $500,000 reduction has be achieved. He said that the cuts inclued $122,000 for new cars, $98,000 for the emergency vehicle, $150,000 reduction in the City Attorney's budget if we use the DBI estimate, $85,000 for overtime and $45,000 for laptop computers.

Commissioner Vasquez requested that staff provide a memorandum to the full Commission meeting summarizing the budget proposal. The Commission should also receive the Mayor's Office guidelines for preparing the budget. If there is time, the whole budget document should be revised and provided to the full Commission.

3.	Discussion and possible action to set a meeting and identify items that could be placed on the agenda of future meetings of the Committee.

Commissioner Vasquez proposed another budget meeting to be set for next week. He said he woulld coordinate with Commission Secretary Banico on the date and time for the meeting.

Commissioner Cereghino agreed.

4.	Public Comment: The Committee will take public comment on matters within the Committee's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.

There was no public comment received at this point in the proceedings.

5.	Adjournment.

There being no other business, and on a motion made by Chair Vasquez, seconded by Vice-Chair Cereghino, the meeting adjourned at 12:15 p.m.

The motion passed by unanimous vote.

________________________________

MARIA BANICO

Commission Secretary

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