Department of Building Inspection

Building Inspection Commission

BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)

Department of Building Inspection (DBI)

Wednesday, May 7, 2003
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 408

Adopted June 4, 2003

MINUTES

The regular meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 3:10p.m. by President Fillon.

1. Call to Order and 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, excused Esther Marks, Commissioner
Roy Guinnane, Commissioner Rodrigo Santos, Commissioner
Matt Brown, Commissioner
Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary

D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:

Frank Chiu, Director
Amy Lee, Assistant Director
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Taras Madison, Administration & Finance Manager
Sonya Harris, Secretary

2. President's Announcements.

President Fillon had no announcements.

3. Discussion and possible action on fiscal year 2003-04 budget, DBI financial status and meeting with Mayor's Office regarding proposed Board of Supervisors' supplemental appropriation from DBI to Planning and other general fund cost shifts to DBI. [Commissioner Guinnane & DBI staff]

Commissioner Guinnane reported that he and Assistant Director Amy Lee met with the Mayor's Office, and Gerald Green and Mr. Badiner of the Planning Department. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a number kicked out of $2.5M which was Mr. Green's wish list that included eighteen positions that are currently empty and said that Planning really, really needed this money. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was other discussion about whether it was $2.5M or less and finally it came back at $2.5M. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was discussion about another couple of million dollars going to the Mayor's Office for Fire and different divisions, including SROs, which was $600,000. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he was trying to figure out how to tie some of these divisions and dollar amounts to DBI. Commissioner Guinnane said that he talked to Mr. Kawa about maybe supporting the Fire Department if they could come along and guarantee DBI that the money that would be given to Fire would be used for a couple of Plan Checkers at DBI to take care of the backlog in the SROs. Commissioner Guinnane said that what is happening is that initially when the sprinkler ordinance went into place the Fire Department guaranteed that they could handle the backlog and now the problem is that people are submitting the plans and these plans are not being checked for four or five months. Commissioner Guinnane said there was conversation that DBI had some vacancies that the Department would like to fill and there was discussion about the City Attorney's money that comes in for DBI settlements that has been held for the last year. Commissioner Guinnane said that what is very, very troubling is that the City wants over $5M, yet the legality issue is still being talked about. Commissioner Guinnane said that if he were to support the money for Planning, Fire or whatever division he would like to get a written opinion from the City Attorney's Office, from Dennis Herrera or Buck Delventhal which basically guarantees that whatever monies come out of DBI funds to be transferred to other divisions, is totally legal because Commissioner Guinnane said that he has read the Charter and said that it is very explicit and very clear that the money is not to be used elsewhere. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was also a discussion at the last meeting and a previous meeting where he had asked Director Chiu if he had any knowledge regarding this $2.5M to Planning and Director Chiu said absolutely not, he did not know anything about it at all. Commissioner Guinnane said that it came out in yesterday's meeting that Gerald Green had numerous conversations with Frank Chiu regarding this $2.5M. Commissioner Guinnane said that he found this very interesting. Commissioner Guinnane said that Ms. Lee might want to add something to his comments, but said that the only thing that was really troubling him was the other $2M going to the Mayor's Office and the way it was done. Commissioner Guinnane said that it was very, very distasteful in the way that the Mayor's Office is just trying to take this money.

Assistant Director Lee said that the Department did emphasize that it is more important for these entities to start communicating with DBI staff, not just in terms of the Director's talking to each other, but also the Mayor's Office or Planning staff giving DBI programmed details. Ms. Lee said that she could not come before the Commission with the little details that she had to ask for the Commission to approve something. Ms. Lee said that it was promised that communication would be improved. Ms. Lee said that it was agreed upon at the conclusion of the meeting was that they would provide DBI with a list of the programs that they wanted DBI to fund. Ms. Lee said she asked for very specific information on this list detailing what kind of Codes might be enforced and whether it involved ongoing salary costs, etc. Ms. Lee said that as Commissioner Guinnane expressed during the meeting that he would not feel comfortable agreeing to do this unless there was an opinion from the City Attorney that it was appropriate. Ms. Lee said that she had given the Commission a handout with some of the proposals. Ms. Lee stated that the last summary report she was requested to provide showed $2.1M to the General Fund and $2.5M to the Planning Department. Ms. Lee said that it looks like now that DBI has been asked to help the General Fund by $2,044,000 and it would also be helpful if DBI helped with the $2.3M, but the original $2,044,000 is the priority in assistance from DBI. Ms. Lee said that the group had expressed that they just wanted the Commissioners to approve this although they expressed some concerns about the legality of it. Ms. Lee stated that it seemed to her that the Mayor's Office and Board of Supervisors had already had some discussions with Buck Delventhal and that Buck has said that certain programs would be appropriate and others would not. Ms. Lee said that the Commissioners had also received a copy of a memo that the Director and she wrote to Noelle Simmons of the Mayor's Office. Ms. Lee said that the Department discovered last week that money had been transferred to the Department of Public Health from DBI's Repair and Demolition fund already without any notification or details. Ms. Lee stated that she requested further information and it seems that the money was appropriately used. Ms. Lee said that the repair and demolition fund had a balance of $1.7M and they took out $1.5M to give to DHS and DPH. Ms. Lee said that she found out the repair and demolition fund could be used to pay for repairs of SROs which the City and County has ownership or control of so that is where the Code allows them to do that. Ms. Lee said that the Code also states that the use of these funds is at the discretion of the Director once the Director mandates that the property is a disaster or needs emergency repair so for record keeping purposes DBI should have gotten information prior to the money being spent so this has been requested. Ms. Lee said that what she did try to emphasize with Gerald Green, as well as with Steve Kawa, is that the reason DBI has revenues right now is not only because the Department enjoyed high revenues in the past three years, but for the past two and one-half years the Department has been working on a very skeletal budget and made some very cost conscious cuts making sure to maintain services, but also to balance the fact that in the future the revenues would slow down significantly. Commissioner Santos asked what was the reaction of Mr. Green and Mr. Kawa. Ms. Lee said that Gerald Green said that Planning had been suffering as well. Ms. Lee said that she wanted to emphasize that what DBI did for the past three years was more purposeful and proactive and was a different type of mentality. Ms. Lee said that it was expressed to Steve Kawa in another meeting that it was difficult to provide funding for other departments for positions when DBI cannot even provide that funding to its own staff. Ms. Lee said that right now, whether it be the Mayor's Office or the Controller's Office, DBI was having a hard time getting any positions approved or even very minor promotions approved. Ms. Lee said that Steve Kawa understood the situation and asked her to provide a list of these items that were being held up and said he would try to work on some of the issues that DBI was having difficulty with. President Fillon asked if this was all that DBI would get out of this.

Commissioner Brown said that Ms. Lee mentioned earlier that she had asked how much of the money would go to fund ongoing positions and asked what the response was to that. Ms. Lee said that more details would be provided. Ms. Lee said that she got some details in an e-mail this afternoon, which showed which positions were FTE. Ms. Lee said that one of the questions that the Commissioners need to answer for this Department and to the General Fund Budget Director is whether DBI is willing to do this on an ongoing basis, or not, because most of these programs include full time positions that likely will need funding next year. Ms. Lee said that she expressed that if DBI were to do something like this, she would like to see DBI's ability to provide better services, as similarly to Planning's wish list DBI had a wish list, but purposefully did not move forward with it because of the revenue situation. Ms. Lee said that she thought that this Department needed to move forward with reconfiguring the first floor to improve how the Department intakes and reviews permits. Ms. Lee said that there is still a large backlog so DBI should definitely have more staffing especially in the Plan Check Division with over four Managers missing and over thirty-five Architects and Engineers missing. Ms. Lee stated that this did not even include the clerical staffing the Department would need. Ms. Lee said that this is not so much a wish list, but something that the Department should move forward with. Ms. Lee said that she did not think that this Department could continue to function the way it has in the past two and one-half years on a skeletal budget. Ms. Lee said that there were five cars approved in this budget, but the Department needs a lot more so there are some needs that she would like to put forward and would like the Commissioners to support in the future despite the economic times.

Commissioner Guinnane said that he asked the question at the meeting yesterday that was asked by Commissioner Santos about this being a one-time thing or would it continue annually. Commissioner Guinnane said that nobody would answer that question, but said that his take on it would be that it would be on an annual basis. President Fillon said that he thought that this was pretty obvious. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a response that if Planning was hiring someone on July 1 they would not want to lay them off on June 30, so that answers the question.

Commissioner Brown said that at the last meeting he expressed his concern that there was no one from the Planning Department at the BIC and said that he still had the same concern. Commissioner Brown asked if the Planning Department knew that this item was going to be discussed on the agenda. Ms. Lee said that she believed that they did know. Commissioner Brown said that he did not understand, as it did not make any sense to him, how Planning could ask for such a large appropriation of money and then not even show up to justify it. Commissioner Brown stated that he was not saying that this was not justified because he understood that a lot of the City is hurting and DBI is a sister organization in the City and everyone needs to support each other. Commissioner Brown said that he just wanted to hear it from someone in Planning. Ms. Lee said that she would agree and said that when she mentioned that she would like to have more detail than the one page that showed a supplemental for $2.5M, the Mayor's Office was a little bit upset with her. Commissioner Brown said that the proposal that was given to the BIC at the last meeting was really presumptuous and was like a phone call saying I'm really down and can you lend me a few bucks. Commissioner Brown said that he did not want to shut the door on this, but wanted to hear from folks and Mr. Kawa said the last time that he had heard from Supervisor Dufty that there was going to be some sort of supplemental appropriation sought from somewhere else. Ms. Lee said that apparently Planning had seen excess revenues this fiscal year of $700,000 so they were going to move forward to expend those $700,000 and that was what he was talking about. Ms. Lee stated that this was a separate request from what was presented to DBI.

Commissioner D'Anne asked what was the Fire Department's overtime budget. Ms. Lee said that she did not know. Commissioner D'Anne said that they should cut back on their overtime and use that money. Commissioner D'Anne stated that she thought this was a bad precedent to start. Ms. Lee said that DBI's overtime, even though it is reimbursed to the Department at time and one-half, has been cut down and off time application review meetings have also been reduced. Commissioner D'Anne said that the Fire Department should take a lesson from Muni as MUNI has been pretty good about cutting back on their overtime. Commissioner D'Anne asked what would happen when DBI needs money and could the Department run around the City and ask other departments for money. Ms. Lee said that DBI could not do that because the Department is specially funded so the mandate would not allow that.

President Fillon said that one thing that was asked for at the Special Meeting that was held was a report about the affect on the Department if that much money was forked over. Ms. Lee said that she expressed her concerns about the Department not being able to run the budget as low as its been for the past two years and basically she did not get much of a response.

Commissioner Guinnane said that he talked with Gerald Green and asked him to look at Planning's fee structure because DBI did a fee study a couple of years ago with the different counties to see where San Francisco was with relation to the other counties. Commissioner Guinnane said that San Francisco's fees were actually pretty low. Commissioner Guinnane said that he talked to Gerald Green about doing this fee structure and it was like hitting a nerve because the fees that Planning are charging right now are way too high for the services that they are actually giving. Commissioner Santos asked if this was in relation to other counties. Commissioner Guinnane said that was correct and Planning really has no way to justify raising fees. Commissioner Guinnane said that the Fire Department has a big, big, fat budget. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he would not mind giving money to the Fire Department if DBI could get a couple of Inspectors to come in and check the plans for the SROs. Commissioner Guinnane said this would be great because it would actually generate money because of the fees and the permits being issued. Commissioner Santos asked if this was for the sprinkler ordinance. Commissioner Guinnane said absolutely because what is happening right now is that the Fire Department gave representation to the Board of Supervisors that there would be no hold up on their part if this was approved and plans are going in right now and are not even being looked at for four months.

Commissioner Guinnane stated that he would like to see an opinion from the City Attorney, which clearly states that taking this money is totally legal because looking at the way the Charter is done it is very explicit in five lines that the money has to be used for DBI. Ms. Lee said that Steve Kawa, the Mayor's Chief of Staff, emphasized that, as a City department the main goal is to help the General Fund balance their budgets. Ms. Lee said Mr. Kawa did put a deadline of this coming Friday to decide which items DBI would approve. Ms. Lee said that she just got this list today and had asked that Buck Delventhal sign off on each individual program. Ms. Lee said that she could talk to the Commissioners between now and Friday to keep them informed of where everything stands. Commissioner Santos asked what happens on Friday; does this go into Code Red. Ms. Lee said she was not sure if the money was just going to be taken or not, but said probably not, because if they were going to do it, it would already been done anyway. Commissioner Santos asked what would the legal opinion do. Me. Lee said that personally for her, she had a fiduciary responsibility to this Department and did not want it to be said in two years that she misspent the funds, but that the City Attorney's Office said it was legally appropriate to use the DBI funds for these programs. Ms. Lee said that she did not want a contractor or somebody coming to sue DBI to seek reimbursement for any fees that were paid to DBI.

Commissioner Guinnane said that in looking at the list, going down starting off with Planning and getting to the SROs he wondered how the SROs could be tied into DBI. Ms. Lee said that she is being told that it is to ensure that the buildings are safe and compliant with Building, Fire and Health & Safety Codes. Ms. Lee stated that in the past when she worked with the Health Department she was under the impression that this was more for fire safety in SROs and was for homeless and medical services. Ms. Lee said that she spoke to the Director of The Tenderloin Housing Clinic and he expressed that it was more appropriate for Fire and would not be as appropriate for DBI to pay for those programs. Ms. Lee said that the City Attorney might sign off on that one and say that it is appropriate because not only is it fire prevention, but it is the Fire Code and Codes in general. Commissioner Brown said that he could understand that one. President Fillon said that the items that bother him are the ones for Planning that are geared specifically to hiring new people. Commissioner Guinnane said that the Commission should spend a little time and go through the list item by line item and determine which issues the BIC would feel good about supporting versus not supporting. Ms. Lee said that the Department would still get verification from the City Attorney's Office. President Fillon asked if it even mattered what the Commission thought in this process. Commissioner Guinnane said that he thought that it did. President Fillon said why should the Commissioners waste time if the money was just going to be taken anyway. Commissioner Guinnane said that if DBI was going to give money at least the Department and the Commission could request that the money be given for something that is actually tied to DBI. President Fillon asked if somebody would even listen to the Commissioner's opinion. Ms. Lee said that it seemed like the Chief of Staff was present to get the buy in from the Department and the Commissioners. Commissioner Guinnane said that it clearly states in the Charter for DBI that the Commission has to approve this money. Commissioner Guinnane said that it might be best to go through the proposal line item by line item to see which ones the Commission wants to knock out and which ones the Commission would hopefully support.

Commissioner Guinnane said that the first item was regarding City Planning Enforcement Plan. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he brought this item up the day before and said that he did not get a lot of information on it. Commissioner Guinnane said that he asked Gerald Green about the $2.5 M and asked if this was an additional $308,000, which would bring the amount to $2,808,000. Commissioner Guinnane said that Director Green did not even want to talk about this issue. Commissioner Guinnane said that he did not know what actual enforcement Planning did as they only started doing enforcement again recently because DBI handles all of the enforcement. Commissioner Guinnane reported that DBI had been sending copies of the NOVs to Planning. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would be inclined to knock this item off and not give that $308,000 if it is being used for that purpose. Commissioner Santos said he would go along with Commissioner Guinnane as he felt that DBI did most of the enforcement. Commissioner Marks said that she would not say that she was in support of this and said that even in going over all of these items she was still concerned with giving DBI monies to another department. Commissioner Marks stated that she did not think this was setting a good precedent regardless of which item it is. Commissioner Marks said that she thought the difference in enforcement was that Planning enforces Planning Code Violations whereas DBI enforces the Building Code violations. Ms. Lee said that DBI's Mission Statement says that DBI enforces Building Code Violations. Commissioner Santos said that Building Code Violations would be linked to life safety issues, which would take precedent over the Planning Code, which is for the legal use of space. Commissioner Santos said that his sense is that Planning Code Violations don't fall into an emergency category and said that he would vote no on giving that money. Commissioner D'Anne asked if the Planning Department had been audited. Ms. Lee said that she believed that Planning had been audited, but had not responded to any of the audit comments. Commissioner D'Anne asked if there was a copy available of that audit. Ms. Lee said that she had one copy about an impact program that was taken away from Planning recently by the Board and given to the Treasurer's Office. President Fillon asked if the audit was done by the Controller's Office. Ms. Lee said that it was done by the Budget Analyst's Office. Ms. Lee said that there is talk about another fee audit that was done and stated that she did not have a copy of that. Commissioner Guinnane asked if Rosemary Bosque had some input on the NOVs for Planning.

Ms. Bosque, Chief Housing Inspector, said that she had a couple of comments, but said that she understood that in the Assistant Director's memo there were some changes to the line items. Ms. Bosque said that some of the Commissioners might be aware that she originally started with the City as a Planner assigned to the then Violation Abatement Code Enforcement section of the Planning Department. Ms. Bosque said that it just so happens she replaced somebody from that division that went to another division, and that was Mr. Green at the time. Ms. Bosque said that she was concerned about the Code Enforcement and said that she had talked with Lois Scott about this because Ms. Bosque currently has three vacancies for Housing Inspectors; two that were part of a freeze and one because a Housing Inspector recently retired. Ms. Bosque said that she had discussions with Taras Madison and Amy Lee about this and said that staff has been very diligent about bringing in every bit of revenue that the Department is owed pursuant to all of the various Code Sections. Ms. Bosque said that DBI is sitting with a backlog of life safety hazards that need to be identified through inspections and she has not been able to hire individuals to do this because the Department has been trying to save revenue. Ms. Bosque said that she did have concerns and while she did think that the Planning Code should be enforced, she really thought that the City, if it is in the crisis that it thinks it is in, the enforcement of the Housing Code and the related Plumbing, Electrical, Building and Mechanical Codes should take precedent over enforcement of City Planning's Code. Ms. Bosque stated that she was saying this as having been a Planner and spending five years of her life enforcing the Planning Code. Commissioner Brown said that he thought this was a good point because DBI is dealing with life safety issues and the City is really asking the Commission to prioritize and the Commission shouldn't really do so as sort of a mechanical reaction to them asking DBI for money. Commissioner Brown said that he thought it was a very reasonable response that the BIC is prioritizing life safety issues over new construction.

President Fillon said that item #2 really bugged him because it was a non-essential thing because rezoning and planning for new areas or replanning existing areas is something that maybe the City can't afford at this time. President Fillon said that it was not something that had to be done right now and something that could be put on the back burner. President Fillon said that there were other things on the list, which he thought could not be delayed and suggested, moving on with the list. Ms. Lee said that the Department would express disapproval of items one and two. President Fillon asked if there was a consensus on the Commission regarding these two items. There was agreement by the Commissioners.

President Fillon referred to item #3 and said that he could support this item. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would agree with supporting the neighborhood stuff and said that he did not know why there was a backlog in the neighborhoods because there is not that much going on in the neighborhoods. Commissioner Santos said that there were a lot of residential construction projects going on. Commissioner Marks said that it was troubling to her because DBI and the Commission knew nothing about how the Planning Department is run and whether or not there are ways within that department that could release some monies to do other items. Commissioner Marks said that this is why she really did not like the BIC setting precedent by saying it is okay to use this money because the Commission does not know. Commissioner Brown said that he would agree with Commissioner Marks and said that the reason he would support doing the sort of process that the Commission was going through is that it should be the Commission's preamble and then if they say that the Department has to give up this money then the Department would have direction to say what the Commission would support more than other stuff. Commissioner Brown said that the Commission was not tying its hands right now, but if the Mayor's Office or the Board of Supervisors decide to tie the BIC's hands behind its back and say that something has to be given up, then the Commission is saying what they support. President Fillon said that at least it would be on record that the Commission was making a responsible decision. Commissioner Marks said that she felt that the money was either going to be taken regardless or by the BIC saying it doesn't want the money to be taken, but if it is going to be taken anyway, these are the ones the BIC are going to let be taken. President Fillon said that the money would be taken regardless. Commissioner Brown said that the meeting was public record anyway, but said that the Commission was not ever going to play the card that if the money was going to be taken, then this. Commissioner Brown said that the only time that a directive should come out of this Commission is if they say they are taking something from DBI no matter whether the Commission wants to give the money, whether it is legal or not, but the money is going to be taken. Commissioner Brown said that then the Department should say that the Commission has discussed this item and the Commission supports certain particular items.

Ms. Lee said that she could prepare two letters, one saying that the Commission did not support giving any money and making the point that Commission Marks said about opening the gate kind of thing. Ms. Lee said that if it is pushed again then the Department could say that if something was going to be taken then this is what the Department might agree to. Commissioner Brown said that this should not be sent until they give the Department no choice in the matter. Commissioner Guinnane asked about the opinion from the City Attorney. Ms. Lee said that the City Attorney opinion is going to be key. President Fillon said that the opinion would give the Commission more direction.

Commissioner Guinnane said that item #4 was the Mayor's Office on Disability in the amount of $125,000. President Fillon said that he thought this was a good thing and would definitely fall into the legal definition of the permit process and DBI related activity.

President Fillon referred to item #5 regarding Public Health. Commissioner Brown said that he would definitely support this one after having worked with these collaboratives and seeing how important they are in the community and important liaisons between the communities and government agencies. Commissioner Brown said that he thought if these particular collaboratives were not funded it would be a real tragedy coming out of this particular budget. Commissioner Guinnane said that DBI was already giving $300,000 to these programs. Commissioner Brown stated that he understood that, but said that this was talking about a whole different population that is being covered by these particular contracts. Commissioner Brown said that he was not sure that if DBI did not appropriate part of its budget to fund these if that means that they just get erased and said that he did not know how much of a hard sell the Commission was getting. Commissioner Brown said he did not know if this was just trying to get some money so DBI could help out some of these other departments or if these are drop dead. President Fillon said that the Department did not know the answer to that question. Commissioner Brown said that he would support the SRO collaborative contracts and said that he understood very well that the Code Enforcement Outreach Project is already funded by DBI, but said that he thought that this item very much relates to DBI, and if no other department is going to fund it, and if DBI's hands are in fact tied, then this would be one that he would support. Commissioner D'Anne asked why these SRO people were not present to speak to the issue so that the Commission could ask questions. Commissioner Brown said that this particular memo was just given to the Department and the Commission today. Ms. Lee said that she did not know if these people were aware that the Mayor's Office wants DBI to fund these programs.

Commissioner Guinnane said that he had concerns with giving the Department of Public Health $600,000 and knowing that the money is really going to be used for that and not used for another department. Ms. Lee said that she was also concerned about that because the description listed for the SRO Collaborative Contract is different from what she understood it to be. Ms. Lee said that what the Department could request especially since DBI is providing funding is that these departments come before the Commission every quarter to report on their progress. Ms. Lee said that this would be consistent with some of the other recommendations that she had for DBI's own internal contracting that would be discussed at the next Commission meeting. President Fillon said that, if possible, he would like to have an answer to the issue that Matt Brown brought up regarding whether this money is actually going to be used to keep these organizations alive or if DBI doesn't give the money are they going to go out of existence. Ms. Lee said that what she wouldn't want to happen would be for the Mission Housing Clinic or the Tenderloin Housing Clinic not to get the money and the money would be funded to another medical or DPH program. Ms. Lee said if the Department and the Commission was thinking that they want the money to used for these Housing Clinics to provide services and the money goes somewhere else, the Commission would definitely want that department to come before the Commission every quarter. Ms. Lee said perhaps a mechanism could be worked out where DBI releases the money to them. President Fillon said that if these organizations were phased out it would be a big loss to the City because it would take a long time for these organizations to be recreated. Ms. Lee said that DBI could provide the money through a work order to these departments, but DBI would release the money every quarter. Ms. Lee said that, to be honest, the City Attorney has not been helpful to DBI in releasing monies and the money has just been released without notice. Commissioner Brown said that he would like assurances that these are one-time appropriations and that DBI is not agreeing to fund either these positions, programs or services. Commissioner Brown said that DBI would just be lending a hand and said that agreeing to give up any money should be a last ditch. Ms. Lee said that there would be no way to take care of DBI for the next fiscal year if this was ongoing.

President Fillon clarified that the Commission was saying yes to item #5 and no to item #6. Commissioner Guinnane said that item #7 was an item for City Planning in the amount of $350,000. President Fillon said that this was an item that should not be done at this time if the City is having financial problems. Commissioner Guinnane referred to item #8, which was for equipment for City Planning in the amount of $100,000. Commissioner Santos said that they could use slide rules. The Commission agreed not support item #8. Ms. Lee asked about BOS legislation and EIRs, which were included in item #9. Commissioner Guinnane said that it was $100,000 to evaluate these items. The Commission agreed not to support item #9. Ms. Lee asked about item #10. President Fillon said that he would say no with a capital N. Commissioner Santos said that an evaluation in Noe Valley could wait. The Commission agreed not to support item #10. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would say no to item #11 on the environment, which was $187,000. The Commission agreed not to support item #11. Commissioner Guinnane said that for item #17 in the amount of $897,000 for Fire, he would like to authorize some money there, but on the pretense that DBI gets the Inspectors to work for DBI and drop it down to no more than $250,000. Ms. Lee asked what services Commissioner Guinnane wanted the Fire Department to provide. Commissioner Guinnane said that he wanted the Fire Department to provide help with the SROs and the sprinkler ordinance so that they would come in and handle the backlog. Commissioner Guinnane said that $250,000 should cover that item. Commissioner Guinnane said that item #18 was regarding Public Health and said that DBI had already shifted $1.5M. Ms. Lee said that the $1.5M was for the repair of SRO buildings and was not for any services. Commissioner Santos asked if this was service related. Ms. Lee said that it seemed to her that this was for Environmental Inspectors. The Commission agreed not to support this item. Commissioner Guinnane said that the items were down to help with the Housing program. Ms. Lee referred to #19. Commissioner Guinnane said that this item would be covered by DBI in-house staff. Commissioner Guinnane said, if anything the Department would fund for a couple of DBI Housing Inspectors. The Commission agreed not to support this item.

Ms. Lee said she wanted to clarify that the Commission was only okaying monies for Planning in the amount of $205,000, the Mayor's Office for $125,000, SRO Collaboratives for $592,000 and reducing the amount for the Fire Department to $250,000. Commissioner Guinnane said that this was cutting the request down to more than half. Commissioner Guinnane said that $1.5M had already been taken. Ms. Lee said that this would total about $1.1M and $1.5M was already taken from the Repair and Demolition Fund, not from capital or operating funds. Commissioner D'Anne asked if the BIC had to authorize the release of any monies. Ms. Lee said that the BIC was supposed to, but that did not happen. Commissioner D'Anne asked what good it was if the Commission did not have the ability to make these decisions. Ms. Lee said that is why it has been difficult with DBI's relations in working with the City Attorney's Office because somehow through the Controller's Office or the Mayor's Office they have released funds without getting approval from Taras Madison of Administration and Finance or anyone at DBI. Ms. Lee said that the Mayor's Office said that they were not aware of it, but would look into it. Commissioner Santos asked if this was being treated as an emergency and said that it did not matter what the formalities should be. Ms. Lee said that the Mayor had not declared a City emergency so it is inappropriate.

President Fillon asked Ms. Lee to work with Commissioner Guinnane in terms of reviewing her draft letters and then come back to the Commission if there is time. Ms. Lee said that she had been given a deadline of Friday. President Fillon asked if the Department could get an extension. President Fillon asked how it would work in terms in letting the entire Commission know what is going on. Ms. Lee said that she would e-mail the response that she was waiting for from Buck Delventhal as she would be talking to him tomorrow morning. Ms. Lee said that she would make sure that the BIC Secretary would relay any information to the Commissioners.

President Fillon said that he thought that the point made by Ms. Bosque was a very good one, about putting the cart before the horse, life safety versus studies. President Fillon said that when he was in grad school he did an architectural, cultural resources report on the Noe Valley and said perhaps he could sell it to Planning for a quarter of the price. Ms. Lee said that she did emphasize that there are needs in DBI that this Commission and the Department needs to address as DBI has a wish list as well.

President Fillon asked for any public comment.

Mr. David Barnard introduced himself as a retiree of Building Inspection and said that for most of his twenty-four years he worked in Administration. Mr. Barnard said that he spoke at the Special Meeting two weeks ago and said that he was working for Building Inspection when the enterprise thing came up. Mr. Barnard stated that he also worked on Repair & Demolition and said he remembered having some very major things that came up in Repair & Demolition. Mr. Barnard said if there is only $285,000 in that fund after this amount has been transferred to Public Health and something major comes up like happened several years ago regarding a hotel on Leavenworth that required a safety guard, there would be no money to pay for it. Mr. Barnard said that guard service was paid for nearly a year and it came up to over $100,000 so this would be wiping what is left in the Repair & Demolition Fund. Mr. Barnard said that he knew when someone goes to Building Repair to have work done, Building Repair has to be given a minimum work order of $5,000 before they will even go out and look at a project. Mr. Barnard said that eventually the Department can get the money from the property owners, but said that he worries for the City & County of San Francisco if the money is not there to pay for something serious. Mr. Barnard said to cut this money that they want down to zero and give them nothing. Mr. Barnard thanked the Commission.

Mr. Leo McFadden, Vice-President of the San Francisco Builders Inspectors Association said that he wanted to say that he wanted to agree with Amy Lee that maybe the Department should backfill the Building Inspection Department positions before backfilling some Planning Department positions. Mr. McFadden said that he would like to thank the Commissioners for their efforts to try and prevent this robbery that's going on, especially Commissioner Guinnane.

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

Mr. Robert Pender said that he would read a prepared speech for the Commission and would leave a copy with the Secretary. Mr. Pender said he would read the speech verbatim:

"Dear Commissioners, My name is Robert Pender. I am a Vice-President of the Parkmerced Residents Organization (P.R.O.) P.R.O. is the oldest continuous tenant organization in San Francisco. P.R.O. was founded in 1974, on March 4, 1974. We have existed because the tenants here in Parkmerced support their organization with their yearly dues. We receive NO money from any governmental or charitable organization.

Parkmerced is located in the S.W. corner of San Francisco. Parkmerced has 3,500 apartments divided into 47 blocks. I'm enclosing a map of Parkmerced and a breakdown of each blocks total number and type of apartments.

All of Parkmerced (was built) between 1944 and 1954 to the best of my belief. My family and I moved into Parkmerced in 1968 when it was owned by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. In 1972, Leona Helmsley of the Helmsley-Spear Co. bought Parkmerced. In 1973 and 1974 Leona Helmsley wanted to make Parkmerced into condominiums; which led to the organization of P.R.O. on March 4, 1974. On July, 1999 it was purchased by Ron and Cal Zeff of the Carmel Partners/Carmel Properties/Olympic view Realty Company. This new landlord is my third landlord. I have lived in the same garden court apartment all that time.

I am a 79-year-old widower, disabled WWII vet. My daughters that my wife and I raised here at 5 Josepha Avenue have moved into their own homes with families of their own. The physical deterioration of Parkmerced has sharply increased under this new landlord. Please let my tenant's organization have complete access to your records so P.R.O. can help the tenants enjoy one of the 3 necessities of life which are food, shelter, and clothing.

I am leaving with your Commission copies of P.R.O.'s newsletter for the past couple of years. I am also leaving your Commission copies of the S.F. Tenants Union Newspaper. Please try to help us.

Yours truly, Robert Pender, Vice-President Parkmerced Residents Organization (P.R.O.)"

President Fillon said that Mr. Pender mentioned having access to records and said that permanent records were open to the public so if Mr. Pender went down to DBI he could records on any property he wanted.

Mr. Pender said that P.R.O. was a volunteer organization and these volunteers needed the assistance of people who actually handle the records. Mr. Pender asked if the Commission could arrange something with DBI staff so they could get together. Mr. Pender stated that he was looking to establish a working relationship with the Department. Ms. Bosque stepped forward to give Mr. Pender her card as a contact at DBI.

5. Update on Litigation Committee meetings. [Commissioners Brown, Guinnane and Santos]

There was nothing to report from the Litigation Committee.

6. Update on MIS Committee meetings. [President Fillon & Commissioner Guinnane]

There was nothing to report from the MIS Committee.

7. 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. Commendation memorandum dated April 9, 2003 from Director Chiu to David Herring, Housing Inspection.

b. Volume 9, Number 4 The BOMA San Francisco Advocate newsletter.

There was no comment on the Communication items.

8. Review and approval of the minutes of the March 5, 2003 meeting.

Commissioner Santos made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D'Anne that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 021-03

9. Review and approval of the minutes of the March 19, 2003 meeting.

Commissioner Santos made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D'Anne that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 022-03

10. Status and strategy of civil litigation against contractors' performance of DBI MIS projects.

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 Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Brown that the Commission convene to a Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 023-03

The Commission went into Closed Session at 4:10 p.m.

c. CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957 and the San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.11(a)(b).

d. Reconvene in Open Session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions held in Closed Session (Administrative Code Section 67.14).

Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commission Brown that the Commission reconvene into open session and not disclose any of the discussion held in Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 024-03

The Commissioner reconvened into open session at 5:00 p.m.

11. 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.

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.

There was no discussion on this item.

12. 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.

13. Adjournment.

Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Brown, that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 025-03

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

_______________________

Ann Marie Aherne Commission Secretary

SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS
Assistant Director Lee to work with Commissioner Guinnane regarding response letter to requests for DBI funds.	Page 10