Building Inspection Commission (BIC)

Regular Meeting of April 1, 1998

Adopted April 15, 1998

War Memorial Building, Room 428

401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102

MINUTES

The meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 1:12 p.m. by President Hood.

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

COMMISSION MEMBERS/STAFF PRESENT:

Bobbie Sue Hood, President	Armando Vasquez, Vice-President

Alfonso K. Fillon, Commissioner	Sigmund A. Freeman, Commissioner

Roy Guinnane, Commissioner	Sharon Mark, Commissioner

Maria Banico, Commission Secretary

COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT:

Mona Cereghino, Commissioner - excused absence

D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:

Frank Chiu, Director

Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director for Permit Services

William Wong, Deputy Director for Inspection Services

David Serano-Sewell, Assistant to the Director

CITY ATTORNEY'S REPRESENTATIVE:

Judith Boyajian, Deputy City Attorney

Helen H. Kwak, Deputy City Attorney

2.	President's Report.

a.	Report, discussion and possible action to constitute a BIC Committee to provide input to the Controller's Office regarding the audit being conducted on the Department of Building Inspection.

Director Chiu reported that the Controller's Office was involved in two separate audits of the department. About a year ago, there was an audit of the revolving fund when the Controller's Office looked at the cash and revolving fund of the department. This audit resulted in DBI's proposing legislation to increase the revolving fund from $100 to $300. To date, the proposed ordinance has not moved forward and the department is still seeking a supervisor to sponsor the proposal. President Kaufman may be willing to sponsor the legislation as part of other CPB-
related (Central Permit Bureau) ordinances.

The second audit started on March 23, 1998. The Controller's Office issued a memorandum that they will be conducting audits of all special fund departments. They are now looking into other areas such as expenditure reporting. Director Chiu said that the audit is already underway. The audit is city-wide and DBI came up because it is the department's turn.

President Hood requested that Commissioner Guinnane act as the BIC liaison on this matter.

Commissioner Guinnane accepted.

President Hood asked if other members of the Commission would be interested in being involved in this audit.

Commissioner Cereghino and Vice-President Vasquez excused themselves due to commitments to other BIC Committees.

President Hood urged Commissioner Guinnane to follow up on this matter and let her know if he needed any assistance.

b.	Announcement and introduction of Deputy City Attorney Helen H. Kwak who will be the City Attorney's staff representative to the Building Inspection Commission.

President Hood introduced Deputy City Attorney Helen H. Kwak to the Commission and announced that she will be the representative from the City Attorney's Office assigned to the BIC. Ms. Kwak is with the Code Enforcement team which used to be part of the Land Use team but is now part of the Litigation team. Deputy City Attorney Boyajian will be assisting Ms. Kwak during the transition.

Deputy City Attorney Kwak addressed the Commission and spoke on the reorganization in the City Attorney's Office. She said that she and Deputy City Attorney Kimon Manolius will be making a presentation to the Commission at a future meeting. She said that she looks forward to serving the Commission.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that Deputy City Attorney Dick has expressed an interest in working with City Planning. She will still be working with DBI on the code.

President Hood conveyed to Deputy City Attorney Kwak said that in the past the Commission has expressed concerns over the department's expenditures for legal services. She said that the Commission looks at the value of the monies spent and not necessarily the total amount. She said that Commissioner Cereghino is working on the appellate powers ordinance and Deputy City Attorney Kwak may be able to be of assistance.

Vice-President Vasquez welcomed Deputy City Attorney Kwak. He thanked Deputy City Attorned Dick for her work with the Commission. He said that Ms. Dick was committed to working with the BIC and had accomplished a lot.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that she would convey this message to Ms. Dick.

President Hood announced as part of President's Report that there will be a DBI Employees Awards ceremony on April 15, 1998 at the Opera House from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. There will be no charge for DBI employees and the Commission. Non-employees are also welcome. Tickets to the event cost $35.00. She said that the Mayor thinks it is important to commend employees and she thanked Director Chiu for this idea.

Director Chiu said that the event will be right after the BIC Meeting and he hoped that all the Commissioners will be able to attend.

Vice President Vasquez said that he will be on vacation and will not be able to attend.

President Hood said that members of the Commission can attend because this is a passive meeting under the Brown Act. She said that the event will be ceremonial. She added that Commission members are barred from talking about matters within the BIC jurisdiction during this event.

Director Chiu said that the idea for this event came from staff.

3.	Director's Report.

a.	Status report, discussion and possible action on the progress to date to define the program, operating procedures and staff of the One Stop Permit Coordination Program.

Deputy Director Wong reported on the progress of setting up the One Stop Permit Coordination Program. He said that there has been considerable progress since his last report to the Commission on March 18, 1998. He said that all of the program staff has been hired with the exception of the process coordinator from the Fire Department. He said that he is still working on the issue of retirement benefits.

President Hood asked if there have been any challenges filed on the selection process.

Deputy Director Wong said that there have been no protests. The positions are provisional appointments and the Director has a lot of discretion. He also said that the recruitment had been a very open process. Deputy Director Wong said that the renovations on the first floor will be completed by next week.

President Hood asked if the entrance to Otis will be in place.

Deputy Director Wong said that this is planned for a later date. This entrance will cut through current areas of operations. He showed the Commission the operating binder. He also distributed a flyer that will be distributed on the program. He said that the AIA (American Institute of Architects - SF Chapter) has a one page write up on this program in their newsletter.

President Hood said that the Commission will have a continuing interest on this program.

Vice-President Vasquez said that he has gotten calls and questions on the operations of this program. He asked how the One Stop relates to the pre-application meeting.

Deputy Director Wong said the new program's services are free. The pre-application process will be continued. The One Stop Program staff will assist customers who need up to 10 or 15 minutes of attendance. If more time is needed, the customer should arrange for a pre-application meeting.

President Hood said that it is always a good idea to do a pre-application meeting. She said that she thinks the pre-application meeting should be mandatory.

Deputy Director Wong repeated that there will be time limits for the One-Stop Program staff of 15 minutes. The time limits will be extended if resources are available.

Vice-President Vasquez said that the customer gets value for his dollar on the pre-application meetings.

b.	Monthly status report, discussion and possible action on the progress to date in upgrading DBI's computer systems and applications including but not limited to replacing the Motorola system which is currently being used for permit issuance and records management.

Deputy Director Hutchinson said that Mr. Steve Young will be making the presentation. Mr. Roan Michaels, Manager of MIS, was off today.

Mr. Young said that he had good news. There was a demonstration this morning on the new permit tracking system. He wanted to schedule a demonstration for the Commission.

President Hood directed Mr. Young to coordinate with the Commission Secretary on the BIC demonstration.

Mr. Young said that six weeks ago, some divisions moved to offices at 1650 Mission Street. The challenge at that time was to establish communications between the offices at 1660 and 1650 Mission Street. The owner of 1650 came up with an innovative solution. The department worked with Intel and Reach Communications, a consulting company. The problem was solved. Because of this experience, DBI management decided to switch from the previous MIS vendor and brought Reach Communications on board on March 9, 1998. Mr. Young introduced Mr. Gilbert Ginn and Mr. Shelley Boon from Reach Communications.

Mr. Ginn reported to the Commission that they had taken over the data retrieval problems and have fixed that aspect of the permit tracking system. They have been able to export three million records from the old data base and all files are now retrievable. They had to work from the front end, from the computer screens and trace back the programs created to date.

President Hood said that the Housing Inspection Services Division has scanned records. She asked if this will be incorporated into the PTS.

Mr. Young said that HIS has contracted with Canon Research. These are a separate system that does not talk with the PTS yet. In the future, there are plans to expand the permit tracking system but that will have to wait until the system is bullet proof.

Deputy Director Hutchinson said that it was always anticipated that this project would be implemented in two phases. The second phase would contain the bells and whistles.

Commissioner Mark asked if there will be internal controls to access the system or make changes/modifications to records.

Mr. Boon said that the system has been set up to have four levels of access: management, operator, data entry and the public.

Director Chiu asked if the public would be able to change data.

Mr. Young said that these are security issues. There will be user codes. The public will not be able to penetrate the fire wall.

Commissioner Mark asked if there will be a way to determine who has made the changes if a record has been changed.

Mr. Young said there will be a trail.

Mr. Ginn said that Reach Communications had to carry out some reverse engineering to document the program. The program had been installed but there was no documentation.

Mr. Young presented a large flow chart which was prepared by Reach. He admitted that this flow chart was for shock value. It showed how complicated the system was. The flow chart was a road map of the system in place.

Mr. Ginn then reported that they had also been working on developing the department's web site. He said that once this is completed, there will be a translation into Spanish and Chinese. He said that they anticipate this project to be completed by early May.

President Hood inquired from the other Commissioners if they had any objections to having their names posted on the department's web page. Hearing none, she directed Mr. Ginn to add this information onto the web page. She then said that what the public really wants is to have Internet access to the PTS.

Vice-President Vasquez requested a report on how the divisions will be functioning after training in the PTS is completed.

Director Chiu said that he has always been concerned about the end users. He said that he wants to get staff input first. If they are not satisfied, he will not launch the new system.

Vice-President Vasquez said that a lot can go wrong.

Commissioner Freeman said that there should be a link to DPW and other city web sites.

President Hood said that the AIA has a computer applications committee. The department should consult with this group. The web page should have a section on the specific, often-asked questions. The more information provided on the net, the better it will be.

Director Chiu thanked Mr. Young for putting together this new team.

President Hood said that the Commission appreciates the need for changes to make the PTS a reality.

4.	Public Comment.

Mr. John Bardis, Inner Sunset Action Committee, addressed the Commission on a property at 1233 - 33rd Avenue and submitted documents. He said that in the summer, work was being done without any notice to the neighbors. The building inspectors did a great job in stopping the work since the construction exceeded the scope of the permit. A new permit was filed that had to go through discretionary review. The ruling was that some of the construction that had been completed needed to be dismantled. DBI continued issuing notices to abate the violations. Then he said that matter begun to get out of hand. The complainant, resident of 1234 - 33rd Avenue, then suffered a nervous breakdown because of the way the case was handled. He said that a building inspector came to issue a notice of violation to the complainant about work that was done more than twenty years ago.

5.	Report, discussion and possible action regarding the February 1998 billing and expenditures for City Attorney's Office' services to the Building Inspection Commission and/or the Department of Building Inspection.

Ms. Paulette Hooey presented the report on the February billing from the City Attorneys Office. She apologized for the delay in sending out the report. She said that she had temporary staff shortages because of jury duty and minor surgery. Ms. Hooey said that the total billing for February was lower than average but she did not know the reason for this.

Vice-President Vasquez said that his is probably because it was a short month.

Deputy City Boyajian asked if the unidentified charges were billings for phone calls from members of the public.

Ms. Hooey said that this was not the case. She said that there were no unidentified charges this month.

President Hood said that the monthly billing is still a large amount at $85,155.

Ms. Hooey said that the majority of the legal services billing were for Litigation. She said that she sends a copy of the Litigation billing to all the managers and all the entries have been verified.

President Hood said that it was not whether the bill was right or not. What she was looking for was how this information is used for future actions.

Ms. Hooey said she did not know what individual managers did with the information.

President Hood asked if there has been an analysis of cost effectiveness.

Director Chiu said that there has been no analysis to date.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that it is not possible for non-lawyers to anticipate the legal steps to be taken.

President Hood said she was not hoping for such tight controls. She was looking for a broader brush where someone from DBI is looking at the billing from a management point of view. The next step now that the information is at hand is to get staff drawn in.

Deputy City Boyajian said that this issue could be addressed by Deputy City Attorneys Manolius and Kwak at their presentation to the BIC.

Commissioner Vasquez said that when the Commission got the billing problems resolved, it was anticipated that the next step was for the department to analyze, for instance, if such a call to the City Attorney's Office was needed to be made. Another example is whether it is appropriate or the City Attorney's Office to prepare or just to review drafts.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that many calls are generated from the City Attorney's Office. Part of their job is to protect and be proactive.

President Hood assured her that such calls are very helpful.

Deputy City Attorney Kwak said that these calls are important so as not to create additional paper work. Some communications should not be on paper when preparing a case for court.

President Hood said that she was not asking for changes from the City Attorney's Office and that the Commission was very happy with the work from the City Attorney's Office. She was asking for the department to finish the loop. This kind of analysis may even result in increased billing but the department would get more value for the money spent.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that the City Attorney's Office appreciated the need for and did not resent the scrutiny on the billing.

Mr. Hanson Tom, Manager for Special Projects, said that communication with the City Attorney's Office is very helpful. It is better to keep the communication lines open.

6.	Report and discussion on the role and function of the Structural Advisory Committee defined in Section 105.6 of the 1995 San Francisco Building Code and the regulations that govern the proceedings of this Committee, including but not limited to the Brown Act and the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance.

Commissioner Freeman said that he requested that this matter be agendized for BIC discussion because he was confused about the role of the Structural Advisory Committee. He said that in the past, there was an SAC convened for the review of the base isolation for City Hall. The Committee did not have to have their deliberations at a public meeting. Recently, an SAC was convened for Sutro Tower. That Committee had to conduct deliberations in a public meeting. It resulted in difficulties. He said that he did not know all the details of those meetings but listened to part of the tapes of the proceedings.

President Hood said that the difference may be that the SAC for Sutro Tower was required by the Planning Commission as part of their authority on the Environmental Impact Report document.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that another difference was that the SAC is usually convened before a permit is issued. Its role then is to review projects and to provide input to staff. For Sutro Tower, one permit was already issued. Also, this was a high profile case. She said that the Brown Act does not differentiate between advisory bodies and other types of bodies.

Commissioner Freeman said that the SAC is like peer review. He described how peer review is conducted. He said that there are work sessions and it is difficult to have these work sessions in public.

President Hood agreed. She said that the report issued by an SAC should be made public. But it is not good to subject these technical experts to public scrutiny during the technical process and review.

Commissioner Vasquez asked if there was a way to set up the SAC agenda so that public comment does not disrupt the technical process.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that one solution is to repeal the ordinance. The Director has other powers to convene a peer review group. The SAC is a formal process. There are other more informal processes, one of which is peer review.

Commissioner Freeman said that the SAC is convened on a project-by-project basis.

President Hood said that repealing the ordinance will be seen as an attempt to obfuscate public scrutiny. She requested further study on this issue and a report to the Commission.

Director Chiu said that another venue would be third party plan check.

Commissioner Mark said that another way would be to look into amending the Brown Act or the Sunshine Ordinance.

Deputy City Attorney Boyajian said that this would not be feasible.

Commissioner Freeman said that he had the transcripts and the tapes on Sutro Tower. They are very interesting and he said other Commissioners may want to listen to the tapes.

7.	Commissioner Inquiries and Review of Communication Items: At this time, the Commission may make inquiries to staff regarding the status of various documents, policies, practices and procedures which are of interest to the Commission and may discuss communication items received since the last Commission meeting.

Commissioner Freeman referred to a letter from Ms. Caravelli on unlawful demolition.

Commission Secretary Banico said that this letter was distributed to the Unlawful Demolition Committee members only and was not given to all the BIC members.

Commissioner Freeman said that the Committee needs to schedule a meeting soon.

President Hood referred to a letter from Mr. Pat Buscovich on the Permit Streamlining Act.

Ms. Banico said that this letter was forwarded only to President Hood and Commissioner Freeman.

President Hood directed that this letter be furnished to other members of the Committee.

Commissioner Freeman asked about a letter from Mr. Bob Bossi on the proposed ordinances from the March 18, 1998 BIC Meeting.

Ms. Banico said that she has not received any letter from Mr. Bossi. It may be possible that the letter was addressed to the Code Advisory Committee.

8.	Review and approval of the Minutes of the BIC Regular Meeting of March 18, 1998.

Vice-President Vasquez moved, seconded by Commissioner Freeman, to adopt the minutes of the BIC Regular Meeting of March 18, 1998 as prepared.

The motion passed with 6 ayes. (President Hood abstained.) [Resolution No. BIC-031.98]

9.	Discussion and possible action with respect to those items that could be placed on the agenda of April 15, 1998 BIC Regular Meeting and other future meetings.

There was no discussion under this item.

10.	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 testimony received at this point in the proceedings.

11.	Adjournment.

There being no other business, and on a motion made by Commissioner Freeman, seconded by Commissioner Guinnane, the meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.

The motion passed by unanimous vote. [Resolution No. BIC-032.98]

________________________________

MARIA BANICO

Commission SecretaryÇã