2.

President’s Announcements]

 

President Walker welcomed everyone and said that there had not been a meeting for some time due to a lack of quorum because of vacations.  President Walker said that the regular Department updates regarding MIS, CAPSS, the Director’s search and permit and inspection activities would take place at the first meeting in October, which would be October 2, 2006.  President Walker stated that today’s agenda reflected the ongoing efforts of staff and the Commission to clarify Codes of Conduct and said that there had been recent articles concerning the investigations that had been going on over the past couple of years.  President Walker said that the Commission and the staff were committed to creating a transparent and efficient system within DBI.  President Walker said that the Statement of Incompatible Activities would be addressed later in the meeting.  President Walker announced that at the beginning of August the Commission had reinitiated the national search for a permanent Director and said that a representative of the search firm had met with Commissioners and staff and said that there would be an update at the next meeting.  President Walker said that she wanted to express her personal thanks to DBI staff for their commitment to offering the kind of customer service that the public expects as the process is being reformed to create a more transparent system.  President Walker welcomed the Ethics Commission staff and thanked them for being at the meeting to present Ethics training to the Commission.

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders (RBA) said that it was nice to hear statements concerning transparent and translucent government, but said that he wanted to look behind these statements to see if this was just lip service or a political spin.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he found it paradoxical that on one hand it is said that the Commission is trying to be transparent, but on the other hand the President is apologizing for having no meetings.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that to him transparency meant access to the public through the TV process because there are many people, like him, who do not use the Internet.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that to state that this Commission could not hold meetings due to vacations is a very lame excuse and said that this Commission’s record of holding meetings compared to past Commissions is worse than dismal.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he wanted the Acting Director to compare the record of past Commissions with the present Commission with respect to the cancellation of meetings and access to the public.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the calendar had been diluted.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he had been speaking about reform for the past several years, but to see the global agenda today, said that it smells of politics. 

 

Mr. O’Donoghue said that the idea of ethics is great, but in order to ensure reform the Ethics Commission should be independent from the political process.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Ethics Commission could not be independent when it depends on the Board of Supervisors for financing so the Ethics Commission should have its own source of funding such as the Building Inspection Commission has.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Ethics Commission has things forced upon it by the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he was addressing the public to let them know that all is not well regardless of the political spins.

 

3.

Director’s Report.

Acting Director Lee announced that DBI would be holding a summit on October 25, 2006 at the Bill Graham Auditorium titled “Meet the Pros”, which will be a summit to engage the public and to give education and free public workshops.  Ms. Lee said that staff from Planning, DPW and the Fire Department would be participating and said that there would be a lunch lecture.  Ms. Lee encouraged everyone to attend; the summit will start at 8:30 a.m. and last until 6:30 p.m.  Ms. Lee asked that the public RSVP so that the Department could get an idea of how many people would be attending.  Ms. Lee said that people could register on the website and get more information about the topics to be discussed. Commissioner Hirsch asked if this was free to the public.  Ms. Lee said that it was, but that a nominal fee would be charged for lunch.

 

b.  Update on DBI’s Statement of Incompatible Activities.

Acting Director Lee said that last Monday the Ethics Commission agreed to move forward with the draft Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIA) in order to start the meet and confer meetings, as this is a working document.  Ms. Lee stated that in the past, at both the BIC and the Ethics Commission, staff had made very strong arguments about the wording of this SIA and said that the Department had tried to balance the needs of staff, but also address the concerns the Department has had in the past.  Ms. Lee said that DBI staff is in a unique situation compared to other City employees as DBI staff has access to a unique set of information.  Ms. Lee referred to a section in the SIA pertaining to the Commissioners, as BIC Commissioners are required to have specific qualifications for specialty seats and said that this section would require more disclosure from the Commissioners.  Ms. Lee stated that the Ethics Commission would be working with the Department to conduct meet and confer meetings.

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that members of the RBA sold over 700 units in the past few months in San Francisco amounting to some $1.2B, which gave work to many union and non-union workers in the City.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he did not consider himself a professional, but a blue collar worker and said that most workers would not be attending a summit.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that professionals need summits, but said that when this Commission and DBI were created with the help of the RBA and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) it was created independently of the general fund and one of the goals was to be cost conscious.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he questions the cost and the purpose of this summit.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that several months ago he told this Commission that there was going to be a major outflow of builders from this City and said that his members were building in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana and Florida.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he thought that there should be a workshop, not a feel-good summit and said that his members are so successful because they do not waste time going to seminars.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the quality of life is going down in San Francisco and the services of every department have deteriorated.

 

Mr. Sam Dodge of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) said that the Hearst Corporation makes its money selling newspapers and scandals and said that the Hearst Corporation is not above inventing scandals.  Mr. Dodge said that the “on the street reality” is that DBI is doing a great job holding the line in the SRO’s.  Mr. Dodge stated that he has had a great working relationship with the Inspectors and said that he would attribute that to good leadership and a great Commission.

 

Mr. Randy Shaw Director of THC said that he has worked with Housing and Building Inspectors for several years and said that these articles give the impression that all Housing and Building Inspectors are corrupt and the entire group is defamed.  Mr. Shaw said that when there have been problems in DBI it has not been related to corrupt Inspectors and said that the accusations of Inspectors taking bribes has been less than in any major city in America.  Mr. Shaw stated that the person that has been accused of taking bribes is not an Inspector yet everyone gets painted with a broad brush.  Mr. Shaw said that he thought that this Commission’s role is being ignored and said that this must be very frustrating to the Commissioners.  Mr. Shaw said that he regretted that when he wrote Prop G it designated that there would be no compensation for Commissioners because of what the Commissioners have to endure.  Mr. Shaw said that the Fire Department does inspections as do several other departments in the City, but this has never been an issue with any other department except DBI.  Mr. Shaw said that this is very odd particularly because there are so many people in DBI who do not go out and do inspections.  Mr. Shaw stated that he thought that this was unfair and said that it is unfortunate that Director Lee has had to endure this relentless unfair criticism.  Mr. Shaw said that it is unfortunate that the people in this City who do the best job get tarred, but said that he thought that the Commission was seeking a good resolution to this problem.

4.

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

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that for several years no one has been more strident in the defense of DBI employees than himself and the members of the RBA even in the absence of the unions.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he has been critical of management, as he was when the RBA created this Commission and Department along with the THC when both were in a good relationship.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he found within government and bureaucracy that it is not the employees who do a bad job, but it is the process at the very top.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that management at DBI today has problems and said that politics is playing games with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic as it does with the RBA and said that criticisms are long overdue with this management.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he is no friend of the Chronicle’s contrary to what has been stated in Beyond Chron and said that he had not spoken to Phil Matier in the past twelve months.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that because the Director is being critiqued in the Chronicle and at Commission meetings Ms. Lee is now being portrayed as a victim.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this is absurd; Ms. Lee is no victim and said that the Department employees have been branded with the same brush for years.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that it is a fact that top management needs reform and said that this Commission has not brought about that reform.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that if there is to be reform it has to be done on a global basis, not by band-aids or by one or two cases, but by showing where the damage is.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that it was not necessary under the Leo McFadden case to reform the entire Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he was not defending Mr. McFadden and stated that he had not spoken to Leo McFadden since his leave of absence or his administrative leave, but the fact is that this is only one case that was generated by publicity and politics.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that reform is needed desperately, but not in the form in which it is being proposed.

 

5.

Presentation and training by Ethics Commission staff for Building Inspection Commission. [Director, John St. Croix]

President Walker introduced the Director of the Ethics Commission who would be presenting Ethics Training for the Commission.  President Walker said that this would explain to the Commission, staff and the public what the ethics restrictions are. 

 

Mr. St. Croix presented a public presentation to the Commission and said that he would answer questions when he was finished.  Mr. St. Croix spoke about local, Federal and State law.  Mr. St. Croix said that the Good Government publication was distributed each year by the City Attorney’s Office and was a good reference for all employees and Commissioners.

 

Mr. St. Croix said that the Ethics Commission was extremely sensitive to the content of the Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIA) for all City Departments and that was why the Ethics Commission had been working on this for the past two years.  Mr. St. Croix stated that there were a lot of provisions in DBI’s SIA that are not included in other departments, but said that many of the same provisions would be included in departments such as Planning and the Fire Department where there are Inspectors.  Mr. St. Croix said that the Ethics Commission would listen carefully during the meet and confer process to the employee’s concerns, but said that this was something that the voters asked for and is required by law. 

 

President Walker said that during the next agenda item there would be discussion about how DBI and the Ethics Commission would partner to address some of the concerns of the Commission, the Department and the employees.  President Walker said that if any of the Commissioners had any questions or concerns they could contact the Ethics Commission or Deputy City Attorney John Malamut. 

 

Mr. Francisco DeCosta said that the presentation and explanation given by the Ethics Commission was pretty straightforward.  Mr. DeCosta said that his comments would be very gentle, but pertinent.  Mr. De Costa stated that everyone gathered at the meeting had a conscience and said that if people follow their conscience they will not do things that are wrong, however humans often kill their consciences.  Mr. DeCosta said that this is why there are mandates, rules and regulations.   Mr. DeCosta said that the good, the bad and the ugly had been discussed many times at these Commission meetings.  Mr. DeCosta said that the bottom line is that there continues to be a need for consistency, accountability and transparency and it is up to the Commissioners to do the right thing for the people of San Francisco. 

 

6.

Discussion and possible action to obtain assistance from Ethics Commission to provide staffing for the finalization, implementation and training thereof for the Statement Of Incompatible Activities. [President Debra Walker]

 

President Walker said that this issue has been discussed numerous times and as the process has gone forward of trying to identify the Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIA) for DBI there have been concerns that have come up from the Commissioners and the public.  President Walker stated that there are complicated processes involved in the Department for issuing permits and said she thought it would be a good idea to have some particular attention from the Ethics Department to help DBI in finalizing some of the items that are included on the SIA.  President Walker said that the point of this whole process is to have ethics standards that are consistent throughout the City. President Walker said that she believed that some of the problems that DBI has been having over the years is because DBI has not been working better with the other City departments.  President Walker stated that she thought this would be of service to DBI employees.  President Walker said that she asked the Ethics Commission to work with DBI and put this item on the agenda to get feedback from the other Commissioners.

 

Commissioner Theriault said that the SIA document that he received for the meeting was not the one that the Commission voted on previously and said that some of the provisions that he had questioned were now back in the document.  Commissioner Theriault said that he did not agree with a Building Inspector having to give up a Contractor’s license.  Commissioner Theriault said that a Building Inspector should be able to keep an active license as long as the Building Inspector was not doing work in San Francisco.  Commissioner Theriault stated that he wears two hats as he is the Secretary Treasurer of the Building Trades and sits on the non-profit seat on this Commission and said that he does not see a conflict.  Commissioner Theriault said that the SIA states that all officers must declare any permit applications and said he wondered why all employees did not have to do so.

 

President Walker said that this SIA is the one that the DBI Director submitted to the Ethics Commission who own this document.  Acting Director Lee said that this was the document that DBI submitted after sitting down with the Ethics Commission and the City Attorney before the Ethics Commission heard it.  Ms. Lee said that there will be a meet and confer process to address concerns.  Ms. Lee stated that she was told that she did not have to bring this back to the BIC before submitting it to the Ethics Commission so that was why it was not heard again.  Ms. Lee said that while a Commissioner may get a blanket exception from the Ethics Commission because of the specialty of a specific seat, it is important that there is transparency when a Commissioner is submitting an application to the Department.  Ms. Lee stated that staff had previously expressed concern and reservations when having to deal with a Commissioner that is across the desk from them. 

 

Commissioner Hirsch said that there is a built in conflict at the BIC because of the requirements for the two seats of structural engineer and architect because the rules require that a licensed person fill these seats.  Commissioner Hirsch said that he did not think that any engineer or architect that has achieved that license would voluntarily give it up which is being required for the contractor.  Commissioner Hirsch said that he had to go before the Ethics Commission to be given a waiver and if one were not granted then that person’s livelihood would be truncated while serving on this Commission.  Commissioner Hirsch said that he thought there should be some provision for granting a blanket waiver for these positions.

 

President Walker said that she thought that it was important to have the Ethics Commission who is responsible for this document involved with these kinds of issues as they apply in the implementation process.  President Walker said that the point of this agenda item was to actually request as the BIC, the Ethics Commission’s aid in providing ongoing council with the Department directly.  President Walker said that she hoped that the Commission would actually move forward with some sort of motion to work with the Ethics Commission in finalizing this document and moving the process forward. 

 

Commissioner Theriault said that prior to any motion he would like to include the possibility of having an ombudsman from the Ethics Commission at DBI to answer day-to-day questions and to explain the gray zones. 

 

Commissioner Grubb said that he would be interested in hearing the conceptual framework of the involvement of the Ethics Commission.  Acting Director Lee said that the ombudsman would not be at the Department for just the SIA, but for other issues as well. 

 

Ethics Commission Director John St. Croix said he had spoken with the Controller’s Office and other departments and said that the Ethics Commission was hoping to have an ombudsman at each City department as the department’s SIA is implemented.  Mr. St. Croix said that this would be a on a temporary basis to help with education and outreach as well as being a resource.  Mr. St. Croix said that violation of the SIA has criminal penalties so the City wants to be sure that everyone understands it. 

 

Commissioner Grubb said that he thought this would be a good idea because staff winds up in a “gotcha” situation when they are given a document that they have to follow and may or may not understand it.  Commissioner Grubb said that if there is onsite training after the SIA is implemented then staff will have the opportunity to understand what this is about and said that this would serve staff, the Department and the public very well. 

 

Acting Director Lee said that people could ask about specific instances for DBI because inasmuch as the rules seem very clear there are some gray areas that would be of concern to staff in their decision making process. 

 

Vice-President Lee said that he liked the idea, but had a couple of questions.  Vice-President Lee asked how the Ethics Commission was going to do outreach to make sure that the employees would trust an ombudsman and asked if conversations would be confidential. 

 

Mr. St. Croix said that in general the Ethics Department tries to respect people’s privacy as much as the law permits and said that he was hoping that people would realize that the Ethics Department would be at DBI to be informative and to be a resource.  Mr. St. Croix said that in other departments where the Ethics Department has done this sort of outreach those departments tend to deal with the Ethics Department on a regular basis.  Mr. St. Croix stated that people can seek advice on a formal or informal basis, but said that formal written advice does provide some legal protection. 

Commissioner Romero said that he believed that a lot of these questions were being raised because Acting Director Lee has a good relationship with the Commissioners and with staff in the Department, but said that he still had some concerns.  Commissioner Romero said his biggest concern is the fact that these SIA documents are being written for over forty departments in the City and they are not consistent.  Commissioner Romero stated that President Walker says that this document belongs to the Ethics Commission, but the enforcement mechanism is the Acting Director so if somebody thinks that there is some sort of violation they are not going to go after the Ethics Commission they are going to go after the Director as the appointed employee of the City.  Commissioner Romero said that he sees this as a potential problem because there is this perception that the Ethics Commission is going to be an umbrella group, but ultimately the liability will always be in this Department.  Commissioner Romero said that if there were an ombudsman he would ask that they be very familiar with Civil Service rules aside from the Ethics Commission rules because the City cannot set up laws contrary to City MOUs, City contracts or State laws.  Commissioner Romero stated that policies and procedures could be set up, but they do have to be consistent. 

 

Acting Director Lee said that Commissioner Romero had some excellent concerns and said that initially two years ago when this process began the Department was hoping to add to what existed while trying to balance the needs of the Department and the concerns of DBI employees.  Ms. Lee said that unfortunately there are some issues in the Department that need to be addressed in an expeditious manner in terms of ethics and said that she hoped that through the meet and confer process, even though this is a document that DBI will enforce, that those changes will be addressed.  Ms. Lee said that this document had to include the needs of the Management of this Department and the needs of the customers in getting fair service in a professional manner.

Ms. Lee asked Mr. St. Croix how soon DBI could get someone on board.  Mr. St. Croix said that he would hope to have someone before the end of the year. 

 

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that ethics comes down to how much financial gain someone can make.  Mr. Karnilowitz said that to avoid all this hoopla he would recommend that all Commissioners and employees disclose any investments that they have other than their private residences including all conventional loans.  Mr. Karnilowitz stated that this would be transparent and would avoid all of this discussion and the articles in the Chronicle.

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that everyone is trying to find a solution for a problem, but before finding a solution everyone must first know the sources of that problem.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the source is being defined as employees, which is not accurate.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that now the Department is talking about licensing and said that licensing had nothing to do with corruption.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that by taking away licenses the Department would be taking away the qualifications of employees because the more licenses an employee has the better their knowledge.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the problem has been the whitewashing that has occurred and problems noted in the press.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this document would not stop the whitewashing of an investigation.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he was not picking on the Acting Director, but said that there are outstanding questions in her case as two reports were made based on a FBI investigation and there was no discussion about this on the Commission level.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there were contradictory statements made to the press and to one reporter and said that the problems were never solved so there is the appearance or the perception of a whitewashing.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that these rules and documents are meaningless.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the problems have been in plan checking as a very few Plan Checkers have been approving plans as favors and the rest of the Department gets brandished with this behavior.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this problem has never been solved, but now there is going to be a bigger problem by having all of the Commissioners and employees fill out forms, which is an absolute waste of time and money.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that a process needs to be set up to review the Department’s practices and procedures internally.

 

Mr. Ken Cochrane said that if someone has a contractor’s license they worked very hard to obtain that license and to ask someone to give up their license to serve on a Commission is asking a lot. Mr. Cochrane said that he has been a customer at DBI for the past eight years and said that as far as ethical behavior is concerned he thought that the staff is extremely good.  Mr. Cochrane stated that there might have been some isolated incidents over the years, but said that it is unfair to paint the entire Department with the same brush.  Mr. Cochrane said that DBI has a very good staff that work hard and are honest.  Mr. Cochrane said that he believes there is a lot of vindictive reporting in the press.  Mr. Cochrane said that the Department should focus on the good things going on at DBI.

 

Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb, that the Commission would seek the assistance of the Ethics Commission including the possibility of placing an ombudsman with the Department both in advance of and after the finalization of the Statement of Incompatible Activities.

 

Vice-President Lee asked if an amendment could be made to the motion that the Ethics Commission would develop some sort of course that would be mandatory for all employees to take.  Acting Director Lee said that this employee training was already in place.

 

The motion carried unanimously.

 

7.

Discussion and possible action to request a review by the Controller’s Office to review the Code Enforcement process and conduct analysis of conflict of interest issues within the Department and property purchases. [President Debra Walker]

 

President Walker said that she had discussed this issue with the Controller primarily after reading the most recent newspaper article.  President Walker said that she asked a question as to what the scope of the issue of ownership and possible conflict was and said she felt there was an inability to actually assess that.  President Walker stated that she thought that the Department should be looked at from outside the Department to determine that the rules and regulations that are being talked about actually address concerns that come up.  President Walker said that she made a request to the Controller’s Office that was actually concurred with by many others in the City family leadership.  President Walker said that a question came up when DBI presented the Statement of Incompatible Activities to the Ethics Commission as to what the scope of the issue was around property ownership and possible conflicts.  President Walker said that the Controller’s Office had already begun an initial review, but said that she wanted to get the Commissioner’s input.  President Walker said that the Controller’s Office is very familiar with DBI and had done an audit in 2001, which the current leadership has acted on.  President Walker stated that this request was for a follow-up especially around Code Enforcement issues in particular. 

 

Commissioner Romero asked how the Controller’s Office would be involved in Code Enforcement at DBI.  Commissioner Hirsch said he would ask the same question.  President Walker said that the Controller’s Office is doing an audit, as there is an issue of those involved at DBI actually ending up owning property that the Department is directly involved with.  President Walker stated that no one had a sense of the scope of the problem within the Department so the Controller’s Office is the proper agency to do an audit and determine how serious the issue is.  Commissioner Hirsch asked if this was going to be an audit of private purchases and said that he had been away for a couple of weeks and did not know which article everyone was referring to.  President Walker said that there was a situation where a Code Enforcement employee ended up owning a piece of property that there was Code Enforcement action on so the Controller’s Office was going to do a process audit. 

 

Commissioner Romero said that under Prop F a few years ago the Controller’s Office were given the power to do City audits when there are suspected violations of rules and regulations in any department.  Commissioner Romero said that these auditors would have to come to an assessment of whether this activity was illegal or not under the current Codes.  Commissioner Romero stated that people have been accused of illegal activity, but have not been convicted of it. Commissioner Hirsch asked if the audit would be looking at the Building Code.  President Walker said that it would be Ethics Codes and Conflict of Interest.

 

Acting Director Lee said that the Code Enforcement Division enforces all Building Codes and violations of those Building Codes.  Ms. Lee said that she thought there was concern from President Walker regarding staff’s participation in that process as it relates to any violation of the Ethics Code.  Commissioner Grubb said that there is a cloud over that particular division and said that he thought that the Commission owed it to the public and staff to look into it to discover the depth of any problems.  Commissioner Grubb stated that he thought the Controller’s Office should get an audit initiated as soon as possible.  Commissioner Hirsch asked if this would be a general assessment or would it be about one specific instance.  President Walker said that the audit would be looking at these types of instances and the Code Enforcement process and if the Department needs to require other notifications as Department staff purchase property.  President Walker stated that currently the Form 700’s are required annually and said that she did not know if there were any further noticing requirements if in between time people purchase property, but there is a need to look at the system to make sure that employees are given the opportunity to comply with the Ethics rules.  President Walker said that there is no way for anyone to answer the question as to what is the scope of the problem. 

 

Commissioner Grubb said that he thought this would bring clarity to the issue as there is speculation in the public sector as to how rampant is this in this Division or not.  Commissioner Grubb said that this proposal would allow the Controller’s Office to look at this Division, investigate and report back as to what extent, if any, that this is an issue within that section.    Commissioner Hirsch asked why the Commission had to tell the Controller’s Office to do this if that is their purview.  Commissioner Grubb said that the BIC had to request that of the Controller’s Office. 

 

President Walker said that this audit would help with the public’s awareness of DBI and staff’s position on this.  President Walker stated that she believed that this was an isolated incident and said that she thought that the Commission owed it to staff and the public to engage in a process of transparency where there is very little.  Acting Director Lee said that she thought this was a single incident, but said that it would be helpful for the Controller’s Office to audit the process; for example with financial issues a department does not want the same individual refunding checks and also providing approvals as there needs to be a check and balance.  Ms. Lee said that a person who initiates the Code Enforcement action should not be the person that handles a case through the whole process, but there should be some checks and balances.  

 

Commissioner Theriault said that he would ask if there is any such audit that it would be done with the utmost sensitivity toward personnel issues as there might be individuals who would become a matter of concern under this audit and those cases should not be made public in any way until all due process for personnel has been exhausted.  Acting Director Lee said that she would echo that because she certainly does not want to paralyze staff in decision-making as she has confidence in their abilities and professionalism.  Ms. Lee said that this audit would be more process driven rather than specific staff action.  Vice-President Lee said that he would be in favor of this audit, as he would like to know if this is a big problem or just an isolated incident.  Vice-President Lee asked what the timeframe of the audit would be and when it would be finished.  President Walker said that she had not followed up on that with the Controller, as she wanted to get input from the Commissioners.  President Walker said that by the next meeting she would have that information or have the Controller’s Office come to the meeting to detail what their plans are. 

 

Commissioner Romero asked if the audit would involve staff being interviewed or could the audit be done by looking through paperwork.  President Walker said that she would imagine that most of it could be done by looking through paperwork and the process.  Commissioner Theriault said that he thought it would be better for the Controller’s Office to come before the Commission and give a presentation before taking any action on this particular matter.  President Walker said that she would request that and said that the Controller’s Office can initiate an audit on their own and are probably already reviewing information.  Commissioner Romero said that it would be better if staff knew what the audit was about as staff has had a very stressful year.  President Walker stated that hopefully this would be a process that will make things better at DBI.  Commissioner Grubb said that he felt this audit would serve as a vindication as well as improve the process for the Department so that these issues are avoided in the future. 

 

Acting Director Lee said that the 2006 Grand Jury Report was very favorable to the Department, but the good reports do not get into the press.  Ms. Lee said that she wanted to acknowledge the good work that staff has been doing.

 

Mr. O’Donoghue said that he had not spoken to Leo McFadden in over twelve months and said that Mr. McFadden had not attended any RBA functions.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Leo McFadden is an active union member and is head of the Inspector’s union.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this is much ado about nothing and said that he thought that the call for the Controller to come in and do an audit is a waste of resources and time.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that if he had been the Acting Director when this hit the papers he would have called the seller of the property and asked the seller if they were satisfied with their sale and the price.  Mr. O’Donoghue said he would have called the Board of Realtors and looked at what was a comparable price.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this is not an isolated incident of property purchased by an Inspector.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that a previous Inspector, Torres-Gil, in that Division had purchased property and City Attorneys who were in the enforcement section purchased properties.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the fact that maybe they had insider information on the sale of a property does not make it illegal or does not bring the connotation that something unethical has been committed.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that because there is not strong leadership at DBI now there is an employee whose name has been tarnished and it is not good enough to say that anyone empathizes with him because his name and reputation have been ruined from articles in the press. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he did not believe that an audit is necessary as this is deflecting the resources of the Department and calling for more rules and regulations.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that previous Acting Director Jim Hutchinson filed a formal complaint with the District Attorney about such a purchase by a previous occupant/Inspector in that Division.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that a black man from out in the Bay View came into DBI and said that he was intimidated by the Inspector so he sold his property and nothing was done about that case.  Mr. O’Donoghue asked if this was just a deflection to take away from serious problems within the Department and said that this smells of politics.

 

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that code violations against a property are public information and said that he did not think that there was anything underhanded in this situation.  Mr. Karnilowitz stated that he hoped this would not turn into a witch-hunt as the Department should move forward and be more vigilant regarding new transactions.  Mr. Karnilowitz said that this would hurt morale in the Department and said he agreed with the previous speaker that the Department should go to the seller of the property to see what the transaction was.

 

President Walker stated that she would make sure that the Controller’s Office would be present at the next meeting to discuss their process.

8.

Review and approval of the minutes of the July 17, 2006 meeting.

 

Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb, that the minutes be approved.  The motion carried unanimously.

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 047-06

9.

Review and approval of the minutes of the August 7, 2006 meeting.

 

Commissioner Romero made a motion, seconded by Vice-President Lee, that the minutes be approved.  The motion carried unanimously.

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 048-06

10.

Review Commissioner’s Questions and Matters.

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.

Vice-President Lee asked that the staff make a presentation at the next meeting about the DBI summit to include what type of information will be available, who should attend, etc.

 

Acting Director Lee said that she would have that information along with a timetable.

 

President Hirsch stated that he would not be present at the October 2, 2006 meeting.

Secretary Aherne stated that there was an appeal scheduled for the October 2, 2006 meeting.  President Walker asked that the Secretary let the appellant know that there would not be a full quorum for that meeting.

 

11.

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

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders Association said that he was present to defend his integrity and his outspokenness and also to talk about accusations that were made to Beyond Chron by Acting Director Amy Lee regarding the RBA’s involvement in the article “Tempest Over a Loan with a Dishwasher Thrown In” by Matier & Ross.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that for the record he wanted to state that he had nothing to do with that situation and it happened because Attorney Randy Knox subpoenaed some records in which he found some inconsistencies in what was not disclosed by Gus Fallay on his Form 700 and what was not disclosed by Amy Lee.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he had never been to Randy Knox’s office and had not spoken to Randy Knox in a year.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that when any RBA member goes to the Board of Permit Appeals they do not interact with Mr. Knox and have no interaction with that office.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Acting Director stated that this was promoted for political purposes by the RBA as a vendetta and said that was absolutely untrue.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that these two incidents called for a criminal investigation because of the contradictions of what was said by the Acting Director to the Chronicle where they validate what was said by two reporters.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that to drag in the RBA was an attempt to deflect from the issue.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he would now be involved since the RBA was accused of being involved.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he would be filing three new charges, which will be pretty heavy and will make these two cases look like someone taking cookies from a boy scout.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the fact is that they have not been involved; the fact is there is corruption happening; the fact is that there is special treatment being given internally; the fact is that there is collusion between different departments going right into the Department of Human Resources; the fact is that what is happening has broad political implications and the fact is that he would probably be devoting all of his time to this because he would be proudly stepping down as President of the RBA. 

 

Acting Director Amy Lee said that she would be commenting as a public member and that she was getting tired of the types of comments that are made about staff including her.  Ms. Lee said that to be clear whenever a FBI investigation is talked about she wanted everyone to know that she had approached the FBI herself and invited them to her home and disclosed all facts to the FBI regarding the “so called” loan and dishwasher.  Ms. Lee said that the FBI mentioned to her that the FBI could not comment on investigations, but that she should feel comfortable in commenting that the FBI has no issues with her or any of those items previously discussed.  Ms. Lee stated that it is troubling, even with the Leo McFadden issue, because the papers do not always report everything accurately; they cut up sentences or join them together to make up things that were never said in the first place.  Ms. Lee said that the Department had to be patient with the investigations by the FBI as they relate to Leo and Gus Fallay and said that everyone could speculate, but all of the facts are not known.  Ms. Lee stated that there were ongoing investigations, but with Gus Fallay that issue is going to trial later this year.  Ms. Lee said that she would urge the Commission and the public to hold judgment until matters are closed.  Ms. Lee said that for the record she does resent the clouds over her and the allegations of her staff.  Ms. Lee said that she continues to be frustrated with the Department’s reputation as 99% of staff are very hard working and talented and committed to providing better services.  Ms. Lee stated that all of the comments made in the papers and all of the comments made by the public with misinformed information or not fully knowing all of the circumstances are very disruptive to DBI staff.  Ms. Lee said that personally as well as professionally in the Department’s ability to provide services she wanted to express staff’s frustrations and wanted to make clear that she approached the FBI and that they have no issue regarding any matter with her.

 

12.

Adjournment.

 

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

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 049-06

 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,


______________________

Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary