Litigation Committee

Building Inspection Commission (BIC)

Committee Meeting of August 13, 1998

Advance Copy

1660 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

MINUTES

The meeting of the Litigation Committee of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 1:05 p.m. by Chair Vasquez.

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

COMMITTEE MEMBERS/STAFF PRESENT:

Roy Guinnane, Commissioner

Armando Vasquez, Commissioner

COMMISSION STAFF:

Maria Banico, Commission Secretary

D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:

Peter Burns, Manager of Code Enforcement

Robert Noelke, Senior Housing Inspector

Rafael Torres-Gil, Senior Building Inspector

James Whipple, Building Inspector

CITY ATTORNEY'S REPRESENTATIVE:

Kimon Manolius, Deputy City Attorney

2.	Public Comment.

There were not members of the public present at the meeting, the Committee did not receive any public testimony.

3.	Report and discussion on the litigation and settlement processes.

Deputy City Attorney Kimon Manolius gave a brief overview of the litigation and settlement processes and the City Attorney's Office procedures. He then requested that this discussion be continued at the Closed Session since the explanation of the processes would have more relevance within the discussion of the individual cases.

4.	Report, discussion, and possible action to convene a Closed Session on existing litigation described below as agenda items 4(a) to 4(g).

Chair Vasquez directed that items (a) to (g) be taken together and announced the items for discussion in Closed Session. He noted for the record that there were no members of the public present.

Commissioner Guinnane moved, seconded by Chair Vasquez, to convene a Closed Session, based on the finding that a Closed Session was necessary to protect the City's litigation posture and ability to work on proposed settlements.

The motioned passed unanimously.

The Committee went into Closed Session from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m.

a.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	1080 Bush Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. William K. Benton. (Superior Court No. 986-273)

b.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	625 Polk Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. 625 Polk Investment Company. (Superior Court No. 987-770)

c.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	532 Shotwell Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. Perry S. Acosta, Trustee. (Superior Court No. 990-300)

d.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	4197 17th Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. Edward K. Yap. (Superior Court No. 976-422)

e.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	3251 20th Avenue

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. Select Comfort Retail Corporation. (Superior Court No. 990-340)

f.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	555 North Point

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. F. W. Bay Limited Partnership. (Superior Court No. 992-796)

g.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	1530 Buchanan Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action on the settlement of the case CCSF v. Trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association of San Francisco. (Superior Court No. 987-772)

After the Closed Session, Commissioner Guinnane moved, seconded by Chair Vasquez, not to disclose the details of the discussion during Closed Session.

The motioned carried unanimously.

5.	Report, discussion, and possible action to convene a Closed Session on existing litigation described below as agenda items 5(s) to 5(f).

Chair Vasquez directed that items (a) to (f) be taken together and announced the items for discussion in Closed Session. He noted for the record that there were no members of the public present.

Commissioner Guinnane moved, seconded by Chair Vasquez, to convene a Closed Session, based on the finding that a Closed Session was necessary to protect the City's litigation posture and ability to work on proposed settlements.

The motioned passed unanimously.

The Committee went into Closed Session from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m.

a.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	47 - 51 6th Street (Hillsdale Hotel)

Update on the status of litigation and possible action to formulate strategies or accept settlement offer in the case of CCSF v. Hitendra A. Sihn. (Superior Court No. 992-949)

b.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	960 Harrison Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action to formulate strategies or accept settlement offer in the case of CCSF v. Jimmy Jen a/k/a Kaimen Jimmy Jen. (Superior Court No. 987-138)

c.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	2270 Bryant Street

Update on the status of litigation and possible action to formulate strategies or accept settlement offer in the case of CCSF v. Anita Sit. (Superior Court No. 993-804)

d.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	3251 20th Avenue (Stonestown Mall)

Update on the status of litigation and possible action to formulate strategies or accept settlement offer in the case of CCSF v. Pacific Acquisitions Corporation f/k/a Stonestown Properties. (Superior Court No. 990-341)

e.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	55 Mason Street (Ambassador Hotel)

Update on the status of litigation and possible action to formulate strategies or accept settlement offer in the case of CCSF v. Vasilios Glimidakis. (Superior Court No. 993-534)

f.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	124 Turk Street (Camelot Hotel)

Update on the status of litigation and possible action to formulate strategies or accept settlement offer in the case of CCSF v. Balubhai I. Patel. (Superior Court No. 927-874)

After the Closed Session, Commissioner Guinnane moved, seconded by Chair Vasquez, not to disclose the details of the discussion during Closed Session.

The motioned carried unanimously.

6.	Report, discussion, and possible action to convene a Closed Session on existing litigation described below as agenda items 6(a) and 6(b).

Chair Vasquez directed that items (a) to (f) be taken together and announced the items for discussion in Closed Session. He noted for the record that there were no members of the public present.

Commissioner Guinnane moved, seconded by Chair Vasquez, to convene a Closed Session, based on the finding that a Closed Session was necessary to protect the City's litigation posture and ability to work on proposed settlements.

The motioned passed unanimously.

The Committee went into Closed Session from 3:15 to 3:30 p.m.

a.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	1301 Leavenworth Street

Update on the status of litigation or stipulated judgment in the case of CCSF v. William Pon. (Superior Court No. 982-217)

b.	CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 (a)

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL

Existing Litigation:	759 Treat Street

Update on the status of litigation or stipulated judgment in the case of CCSF v. Gloria C. Argueta. (Superior Court No. 980-519)

After the Closed Session, Chair Vasquez proposed to disclose the details of the discussion during the Closed Session and make a report to the full Commission on these two cases. The two cases listed as items 6(a) and 6(b) are cases with stipulated judgments. In the case of CCSF v. William Pon, the city was awarded $100,000 in penalties. This was a good judgment. The subject property is going through receivership. In the case of CCSF v. Gloria C. Argueta, there was a judgment of $37,000 in penalties. The subject property contained a six unit building and this was a good-size judgment for this size building.

7.	Report, discussion and possible action to formulate procedures (e.g. reporting systems) to carry out the BIC policy of reviewing cases and proposed settlements for those cases referred by the Department of Building Inspection to the City Attorney's Office.

Deputy City Attorney Manolius proposed having regular meetings of the Litigation Committee to keep the Building Inspection Commission informed of the status of cases referred by DBI to the City Attorney's Office. He proposed that such a meeting occur every 60 days.

Commissioner Guinnane proposed that the meetings be more frequent, maybe every month. He said that at the next meeting, he would like more information on the background of cases and requested DBI staff to be prepared to provide such information. He said he would like to know how old a case is, how much time DBI staff spent on a case, whether the parties being sued were first time offenders or whether they had had many other code enforcement cases in the past, etc.

Chair Vasquez suggested that the meetings be held every 45 days and suggested that the next meeting be held toward the end of September.

8.	Discussion and possible action with respect to those items that could be placed on the agenda of future Committee meetings.

Deputy City Attorney Manolius said that he would provide a list of cases to Commission Secretary Banico prior to the next meeting.

Commissioner Guinnane directed Ms. Banico to forward the case names to the DBI division involved and requested that DBI staff provide background information on these cases at the next meeting.

Deputy City Attorney Manolius proposed that the next meeting of the Litigation Committee be held on October 1, 1998 at 1:00 p.m. Chair Vasquez and Commissioner Guinnane concurred.

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

There was no discussion under this agenda item.

10.	Approval of the Minutes of the Committee Meeting of July 31, 1997.

Commission Secretary Banico said that the first line of the Minutes should be corrected to state "Litigation Committee," instead of "Building Inspection Commission."

Chair Vasquez moved, seconded by Commissioner Guinnane, to approve the Minutes of July 31, 1997 as amended.

The motioned passed unanimously.

11.	Public Comment.

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

12.	Adjournment.

There being no other business, and on a motion made by Commissioner Guinnane, seconded by Chair Vasquez, the meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m.

The motion passed by unanimous vote.

________________________________

MARIA G. T. BANICO

Commission Secretary

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