2.

Presentation by staff of the Controller’s Office and discussion regarding BIC’s request for review of DBI’s Code Enforcement process and analysis of conflict of interest issues within the Department. [Controller Ed Harrington]

 

President Walker welcomed Controller Ed Harrington and said that this issue came up after the recent newspaper articles regarding employees engaging in possible “insider trading”.  President Walker stated that she spoke with Controller Ed Harrington and asked if his office could do an assessment of DBI’s Code Enforcement Division, particularly the internal process.  President Walker said that the Commissioners asked that the Controller present what had been done to date and what the review would cover. 

 

Controller Ed Harrington said that he was joined by Harry Richardson and Mark Tipton who would be in charge of the audit work for DBI.  Mr. Harrington said that the San Francisco Charter allowed the Controller to audit not just for financial accuracy and regulatory compliance, but also for effectiveness and efficiency and said that the Controller’s Office has a performance audit group along with its financial auditing group that they do in the normal course of events.  Mr. Harrington stated that Proposition “C” was passed years ago that added Appendix F to the City Charter and that greatly expanded the Controller’s ability to do audits and it said that, as the Controller’s Office chooses audits, preference should be given to the requests of the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, Department Heads, and Commissions. 

 

Mr. Harrington stated that in DBI’s case he thought that the issue was if people working at DBI have, for some reason, an unfair advantage in property transactions or in transactions related to property that they own.   Mr. Harrington said that the audit would take a look at who is associated with the Department, either their regular name, LLC or DBA name and look to see if they actually own property in San Francisco; look to see if there have been any Code Enforcement actions related to that property and see if there was an unfair advantage or not.  Mr. Harrington stated that part of this audit is to lay to rest whether this is a big deal or not and if it involves a lot of people to see if there was any unfair advantage.  Mr. Harrington said that the second part would then be to recommend to the Commission different ways that the BIC might want to take a look at preventing these actions.  Mr. Harrington said that there are two ways of looking at controls from an audit perspective, one is preventative, one is detective.  Mr. Harrington stated that one result would be to recommend that the Commission might want to look at changes, as it is working with the Ethics Commission, as to how to manage the Department.  Mr. Harrington said that he would propose that the Controller’s Office start this almost immediately and would have a report back to the Commission in three to four months.  Mr. Harrington said that he would be happy to answer any questions.

 

President Walker asked if the audit would look at DBI’s Statement of Incompatibility to see if it effectively addresses issues that might come up as this rolls out and there is more information regarding the scope of DBI.  Mr. Harrington said that would be included as that is a way to look at preventative things and what would be prohibited or encouraged in what the Department would require in terms of disclosure.

 

Commissioner Murphy said that he had been out of the loop for the past few weeks and asked who ordered this investigation.  Mr. Harrington said that he met with President Walker and said they discussed it and said that he believed that President Walker had discussed it with the other Commissioners.  President Walker said that she was prevented from speaking to a majority of the other Commissioners except at meetings, but said that this was on the agenda at the last meeting and was discussed.  President Walker said that she spoke with Ed Harrington directly after the newspaper article came out and said that she asked Director Lee and DBI staff to get an assessment as to the possible scope of this issue.  President Walker stated that there did not seem to be any sort of quick answer so she thought it was a good opportunity to bring in the Controller who had done an extensive audit of DBI back in 2001.  Commissioner Murphy asked what had been gained by the audit in 2001.  President Walker said that some of the Commissioners sitting on the present Commission were appointed because of that audit.  President Walker said that she was committed to reform surrounding issues that have been ongoing problems in DBI, or at least the appearance of impropriety.  President Walker stated that Interim Director Lee was committed to creating a transparent and efficient system and said that the Department was well on its way to doing that.  President Walker said that she believed that this problem is probably not extensive, but said that the Commission and the Department needed help in assessing that. 

 

Acting Director Lee said that the Department had set aside funds for other services required from the Controller’s Office, but those funds were not needed so there are funds available for the audit. 

 

Commissioner Murphy said that he hoped the audit was starting at the top.  President Walker said that the audit would be starting with the Commission on down.  Commissioner Murphy said that according to the First Amendment everyone is equal. 

 

Mr. Harrington said that Commissioner Murphy had asked about the last audit and said that one of the disappointments was that the Commission that was sitting at that time had very little interest in implementing anything that the Controller’s Office suggested, especially as it related to them.

 

Commissioner Theriault said that he could agree with Commissioner Murphy’s concerns because this audit is not a legal process for particular individuals in the Department, whose guilt or innocence will be determined.  Commissioner Theriault said that there were personnel privacy issues that he trusted the audit would respect.  Acting Director Lee said that Commissioner Theriault’s concerns were well founded, as the results of the audit would be public. President Walker said that it was her understanding that all of the information that will be looked at is public information. Mr. Harrington said that the records that his office would be looking at are all public information.  President Walker said that this is a way to assess it and is something that might well apply to other departments as this rolls out.  President Walker stated that this is sort of a good policy and procedures thing to do periodically.  Commissioner Romero asked if this was done in other departments.  Mr. Harrington said that every department has their own issues and said that his office would be doing a computer scan of all of the names of people associated with DBI, names in the Assessor files, Code Enforcement and others in terms of interaction with the Department.  Mr. Harrington said that his office does a similar scan with the vendor file to see if City employees would be a vendor for the City as this would be another example of interaction that would be inappropriate.  Mr. Harrington said that most departments would not have the same level of direct interaction that might affect them personally and in a business sense.  Commissioner Theriault said that Planning Department would be one of them. 

 

Commissioner Murphy asked if this was all brought on by an article in the newspaper.  President Walker said that it was the article and the inability for the Commission or the Department to respond to it.  Commissioner Murphy said that no one was charged with anything.  President Walker said that the facts of the case uncovered a situation that was troubling especially the possibility of unfair insider trading of information around properties that are within the Department’s jurisdiction and there needed to be some way of evaluating the scope of this as well as try to lay out the rules and properly educate staff as to what is appropriate or not.  President Walker said that hopefully the outcome would be that the scope of this is not a concern, but said that not knowing is a problem for her, as someone who is responsible for the policies and procedures within DBI. Commissioner Murphy said that the Controller might as well audit for the state of morale within the Department because it is at an all time low.  President Walker said that she thought that it has been for years.  Commissioner Murphy said that this would have staff walking around on their tippy toes for the next three or four months until there is an answer. 

 

Commissioner Romero said that he had some of the same concerns as Commissioner Murphy at the last meeting when this issue came up.  Commissioner Romero said that the concern he has is if there are one or two incidents in the paper that everyone has to unfortunately go through another process.  Commissioner Romero said that he still has concerns about it, but said he was willing to look at this process when it goes through and reserve his comments until he sees the end product. 

 

Inspector Tom Theriault said that he hoped that everything would be fair and timely because as Commissioner Murphy mentioned everybody is on their toes and would love to get this out of the way.

 

3.

President’s Announcements.

President Walker said that she wanted to express her thanks to staff, as there was a great big opening at Bloomingdale’s this weekend and staff has been focused on that in the last month.  President Walker stated that there were hundreds of permit applications that came forward all at once and said that she wanted to commend Director Lee and staff for doing that and at the same time continuing to offer customer services to citizens as they came forward with applications.

 

President Walker reminded the Commissioners about the DBI summit on October 25^th and asked that the Commissioners put the summit on their calendars.  President Walker said that the Commissioners would have to stagger their times, as all of the Commissioners could not be present at one time. 

 

President Walker announced that the national search for a permanent DBI Director is in process and said that the search firm that was chosen has met with staff and the Commissioners.  President Walker said that there would be an update on this item on future agendas as the process continues.

 

Acting Director Lee said that she wanted to echo what the President said about the Department’s efforts with Bloomingdale’s as staff put in 200% along with the Fire Department.  Ms. Lee said that she had never seen such teamwork for the benefit of the City and said that it was wonderful to be acknowledged as a Department at the ribbon cutting on Thursday morning. 

 

Acting Director Lee said that in terms of the Director search she wanted to address some false allegations that “the fix is in” and some people are set to become the Director.  Ms. Lee said that she wanted to encourage everyone to apply if they are qualified, as the Department needs the best candidate to be the director.  Ms. Lee stated that there are a lot of great things happening with this Department and future direction and guidance is needed.  Ms. Lee said that she was excited that there is a big amount of clay at DBI that the future Director can mold.  Ms. Lee said that she wanted to encourage as many applicants as possible to apply and said that “the fix” is not in, so please apply.

3.

Director’s Report.

Acting Director Lee reported that in looking at the turnaround times for inspections for July and August the turnaround time was reduced from 97% to 96% due to vacations and said that the Department would hope to get that back within the next month or two to 98% within 24 hours.  Ms. Lee stated that the turnaround time for life hazards was also down. Ms. Lee said that the Department was trying to standardize the reporting of information.

 

Ms. Lee stated that in terms of plan check activity the backlog has been greatly reduced, but there is more work to do.  Ms. Lee said that the Department was looking at 22 days for major projects and said that this was significant because this was basically saying that once an application is submitted the Department will not even begin to do the work of reviewing until 22 days after submittal. Ms. Lee said that as new hires become more seasoned that will improve and said that Deputy Director Wing Lau was keeping a close eye on projects.

 

Ms. Lee reported on permit activity and said that not surprisingly; the summer months are the Department’s greatest activity months as people are trying to submit plans before the winter.  Ms. Lee said that the Department would report every month on what is going on in terms of performance.  President Walker said that overall activity had increased over last year.

   

d.  Financial Report.

Acting Director Lee reported that the Department was well within its operating expenditures and said that to date DBI had only spent $5.7M, but the revenues are $6.75M.  Ms. Lee said that the statistics look like DBI might not achieve the budget, but in February DBI collects a large portion of its monies from March to June or July of next year.  Ms. Lee stated that the license fee was not included because this is done every six months by the Controller’s Office through the property tax bills. 

 

Commissioner Grubb said that he had a question regarding the turn around time for life safety hazards being at 33% for a 24 hours response time and asked why that was so low.  Ms. Lee said that sometimes these might be the result of a complaint and the Department cannot get access through the tenant.  Ms. Lee asked for Acting Deputy Director Carla Johnson to address the question.  Ms. Johnson said that she did not have an answer for the Commissioner today, but said that the Department had been having some problems capturing the inspection results with Housing Inspection Services specifically.  Ms. Johnson said that there is a technical problem of using the tracking system to capture the actual inspections that are being done in Housing and said that staff had been meeting with the Department’s analyst and MIS staff to correct that.  Ms. Johnson stated that Housing is on a different database, but said that 33% was alarming and said that the Department was working on the computer system to correct the information next month as this seemed to be a technical or reporting problem.  Ms. Johnson stated that this would be her number one topic when meeting with the Department’s Chiefs this week and said that this would be monitored on a weekly basis.    

 

e.  Update on the progress of the Statement of Incompatible Activities (SIA) with the Ethics Commission.

Acting Director Lee stated that the SIA is no longer under DBI’s jurisdiction, but is with Civil Service, DHR and the Ethics Commission who are holding a meet and confer meeting on October 12^th from 10:00 a.m. to noon at 44 Gough Street, Room 106.  Ms. Lee said that she understood through some e-mails that she had received that the representatives for Housing Inspectors and Building Inspectors would not be able to make that meeting, but there will be additional meetings thereafter. 

 

Ms. Lee said that she wanted to announce that the Department created a new Division last week called the Structural Safety and Emergency Management Division.  Ms. Lee said that the division would be overseeing the CAPSS project and monitoring, managing and implementing all of the Department’s seismic related programs such as the gas valve release issue.  Ms. Lee stated that Mayor Newsom had made emergency response a priority and people often overlook DBI’s role. Ms. Lee said that she anticipated better training for staff on seismic and emergency issues with the creation of this new division.  Ms. Lee said that this division would be dealing with the more complex building such as high rises that are using more innovative design.  Ms. Lee said that Ray Lui would be working with Hanson Tom on centralizing all of these issues in one division.

 

Commissioner Romero said that it had never been made clear to him what the Commissioners are supposed to do in the event of an earthquake as part of the Building Inspection Department.  Ms. Lee said that there are staff rules and said that the Commission did not have much of an involvement, as staff would be going out to the buildings and red or green tagging them and making public reports.  Ms. Lee said that she would then pass this information onto the Commissioners.  President Walker said that she took a class and would be qualified to be an assistant to somebody out there tagging the buildings.  President Walker stated that classes are available to the Commissioners and said that the Secretary notifies the Commissioners about the availability of these classes.  President Walker said that as a City Official, any Commissioner could aid in a support role, but otherwise the Commissioners would have to have extensive training to help in a technical role.  Commissioner Romero said that he just wanted to be clear on the Commissioners’ responsibilities.

 

Mr. Francisco DeCosta said that in 1989 when the major earthquake took place he worked at the Presidio of San Francisco and said the staff at the Presidio played a major roll in helping San Francisco.  Mr. DeCosta said that he was concerned whether the Commission, and the Department in particular, have maps of areas such as the Sunset that is prone to damage if there is a big earthquake.  Mr. DeCosta stated that at a previous meeting it was stated that some of the earthquake supplies were kept in safe buildings, but it was discovered that those buildings where things are kept safely were prone to the earthquake.  Mr. DeCosta said that the Department should have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Reserves and the Corps of Engineers because these are the people that really know how to do things.  Mr. DeCosta said that he wanted to know if the Department had an inventory of heavy equipment in order to know the logistics and get heavy equipment in place in the event of any disaster.  Mr. DeCosta stated that the City does not have a helicopter and said that even in the year 2006 communications was a problem because radios in the various City departments cannot talk to one another.  Mr. DeCosta stated that he knew that all of these things could not be addressed overnight, but said that some of the experts in DBI could come up with the best protocol and a standard operating procedure for what to do when the big one strikes.  Mr. DeCosta said that he received two awards from the Army for his help with the 1989 earthquake. Mr. DeCosta stated that when the big one hits it would not matter who can talk the talk, but who can walk the walk.

 

Mr. Thomas Theriault, Building Inspector, said that he had been going over the SIA and had some concerns.  Mr. Theriault said that he is a Building Inspector, but does not own a house, as he does not make enough money to buy a house in town and said that some of the provisions in the SIA would be cutting into his ability to be able to afford to buy that house.  Mr. Theriault asked if he were to become a building manager or a building engineer for an apartment building in the City would that be considered an incompatible activity.  Mr. Theriault stated that he worked on the complaint inspection team for a year and a half on the south side of San Francisco and many times he had property owners tell him that they were fed up with renters and were going to sell their buildings.  Mr. Theriault said that this often comes up when Inspectors are out in the field because people are desperate and mad at renters and ready to move on.  Mr. Theriault said that another problem with the SIA would be if an Inspector had an offer on a house and had any issue with a contractor or citizen because those people could call up and make a complaint to the Building Department and that property would be off the table for him, as the SIA said that an employee cannot purchase property that has been under Code Enforcement in the last twelve months.  Mr. Theriault said that there are also questions about what work an Inspector could do before filing with the Ethics Commission, such as fixing a fence, or working on an apartment building that a family member might own, but not live in.  Mr. Theriault stated that the Contractor’s license is a major concern, as people need that license to work on property they might have in another jurisdiction.  Mr. Theriault said that a lot of these issues would be discussed in the meet and confer meetings, but said that he wanted to touch on a couple of the issues that the Building Inspectors are concerned about.

 

Commissioner Romero said that he wanted to clarify that there is a perception that when 44 Gough puts out a memo saying that there is going to be a meet and confer with all of the unions at the same time, that that is the actual meet and confer, but it is not.  Commissioner Romero said that there are individual meetings with each of the bargaining units as that is the way to have a negotiation.  President Walker suggested that Commissioner Romero contact the Ethics Commission with his concerns.  Acting Director Lee stated that representatives of the Department do attend these meetings.

 

Commissioner Theriault said that, by way of amusement, he wanted to point out that Inspector Theriault and Commissioner Theriault, if they are related, do not know how as it might go back as far as the 17^th century. Commissioner Theriault said that he wanted to express this for the public record. 

 

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that he thought that the SIA is draconian particularly when it comes to the issue of Inspectors who want to keep their licenses active. Mr. Karnilowitz said that the Electrical Division at DBI does not allow the Electrical Inspectors to have an active license, but it is a decision that was made by that division and said that he thought this was a good idea; to let each division decide individually.  Mr. Karnilowitz stated that a lot of the Inspectors do not even live in San Francisco and if they had to give up their licenses would not be able to work in another jurisdiction.  Mr. Karnilowitz said that he thought it was unfortunate that because of the perception of preferential treatment or incompatible activity at DBI that all of this was happening.  Mr. Karnilowitz said that he thought that all City employees should disclose all financial activities related to real estate and loans as there would be more transparency and less likelihood of improper and illegal conduct. 

 

5.

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

 

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that he processes building applications in numerous jurisdictions such as San Rafael, South San Francisco, Daly City, etc. and said that in many cases the applications are outsourced for plan checking after which comments are generated.  Mr. Karnilowitz stated that he appreciated that DBI does all of its plan checking internally and in many cases plan checkers permit applicants to come in and make changes to the submitted plans. Mr. Karnilowitz said that this procedure expedites the process and avoids misunderstandings and thanked Acting Director Lee for this service.

 

Mr. Francisco DeCosta introduced himself as the Director of Environmental Justice and said that he normally addresses quality of life issues.  Mr. DeCosta stated that some years ago some of the Inspectors and Mr. Hutchinson played an important role in taking AIMCO at Hunter’s Point to task and AIMCO was fined $3M.  Mr. DeCosta said that now this City is backing AIMCO so that AIMCO can get $85M in grants to remodel and make changes to the same units, which this Department and the City Attorney took a leading role to fine them on.  Mr. DeCosta said that he would like the Commission to investigate this matter.  Mr. DeCosta said that he went to Sacramento to testify before a special panel that grants the monies and gave them an idea of what AIMCO is all about.

 

Mr. DeCosta said that another issue he wanted to bring to the attention of the Commission was that there is a trend to build thousands and thousands of units in the southeast sector of San Francisco and said that if over 6,000 units are going to come on line in that area then DBI should play a role in this development, not just Planning.  Mr. DeCosta said that he was speaking specifically about the quality of building material.  Mr. DeCosta stated that when the AIMCO buildings were built twenty years ago they were built with inferior material so this Department should play a role in the future units coming on line to have stricter standards when it comes to the type of material that goes into buildings especially those designated and termed affordable housing. 

 

President Walker said that this is an issue regarding the Department’s activities with Federal Housing and inspections.  President Walker said that this item should be agendized for the next meeting to have an update from the City Attorney and the Director.  Director Lee said that issues about funds that are received are not within the purview of the Commission or the Department, but stated that the Department is working on an MOU with the City Attorney’s Office.

 

6.

Update on “Meet the Professionals” Summit. [Communication’s Manager Bill Strawn]

Acting Director Amy Lee said that Mr. Bill Strawn, Director of Public Relations would be coming forward to report on the summit.  Ms. Lee thanked Vice-President Lee for helping to brainstorm this idea and said that the Department was receiving a lot of positive press about this issue.  Ms. Lee stated that Mr. Strawn would speak in detail about the scope of the summit and about how the Department has been in the press with the neighborhood hardware store that is publicizing this event along with the Chronicle and the Examiner.  Ms. Lee said that staff has been working on this diligently as it is the first endeavor of this kind on the part of the Building Inspection Department.  Ms. Lee thanked Bill Strawn and Patty Herrera for their hard work.

 

Mr. Strawn referred to a blue mailer that had been included in the Commission’s meeting package and said that this mailer had been sent to 2,500 people and said that it provides in detail the scope of the workshops that DBI plans to host at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on October 25^th.  Mr. Strawn stated that registration would begin at 8:30 a.m. and the workshops would run from 9:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.  Mr. Strawn reported that the Department had scheduled “How to Obtain a Permit” which is the opening workshop again between 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. to try to attract any working people who could not make the summit during the day.  Mr. Strawn said that some of the issues to be discussed would be: condominium conversion; tenant and landlord responsibilities; high rises and the changing San Francisco skyline and tied in with that issue there would be a special luncheon presentation by DBI experts, as well as some outside experts on how the Department manages peer review and how that is an increasing trend to consult, especially engineering and architectural experts to make sure that any new buildings that are over 240 feet high meet the kind of structural demands and safety demands in one of the most active seismic zones in the world.  Mr. Strawn said that beyond that there would be a session on lead paint enforcement; commercial renovation; and disability access especially for small businesses, residential earthquake preparation and some affordable tips, Code Enforcement and then back to “How to Obtain a Permit”.  Mr. Strawn said that there would be a number of vendors, such as the American Institute of Architects (AIA), a couple of professional organizations like Hilty Engineering, Strong Tie, and Pacific Energy Center who would hold vending tables.  Mr. Strawn stated that there would be a City table for the Department of the Environment, as well as the Department of Public Works and possibly Planning and any other City organizations that DBI works closely with and for whom the public might have questions. 

 

Mr. Strawn said that the Department had done a great deal of public outreach regarding this summit and was supported by Cole Hardware along with buying public advertising.  Mr. Strawn said that the summit was advertised in the Cole Hardware flyer as well as the Examiner, Chronicle, Bay Guardian and San Francisco Business Times.  Mr. Strawn said that the summit was covered in fifteen neighborhood publications throughout the City with the idea of reaching those homeowners that might need DBI services.  Mr. Strawn stated that he sees this as an opportunity for DBI to proactively reach out and invite the customer base to try and demystify any questions or concerns that the public might have in coming to the Department.  Mr. Strawn said that he hoped that all of the Commissioners would be able to join the summit on the 25^th. 

 

President Walker asked if Mr. Strawn had more of the brochures for the Commissioners to hand out.  Secretary Aherne said that she had brought extra copies.  Acting Director Lee said that she hoped this would be the first of many more summits and said that in the future she could envision a “Building Week” to highlight issues that are important to San Francisco and perhaps having Planning do a full day of workshops along with other departments.       

 

President Walker said that this was really great and said she hoped it would be done on a yearly basis.  Acting Director Lee asked that everyone register for the summit so that the Department would have an idea of how many people would be attending.  Ms. Lee said that the public could register online at sfgov.org.  President Walker asked if someone from Planning would be at the summit to answer questions from the public.  Ms. Lee said that Planning would be participating in the various sessions.  Mr. Strawn stated that as of the previous Wednesday there were 100 pre-registrations and each session was averaging 30 – 50 participants. 

 

Commissioner Grubb said that he thought that DBI had gotten great bang for the buck with having Mr. Strawn on board.  Commissioner Grubb stated that he had seen some of the responses in the paper to the issues that have been raised, that put the Department in a negative position and said that he thought that the responses from DBI have been on point in providing a counter view that really does represent the Department. 

 

Vice-President Lee said that he thought that the summit is a wonderful idea and said that as an Architect in the City, he often gets questions from homeowners asking if there is a special process or if they need an Expediter to get a permit to remodel their home.  Vice-President Lee stated that he was glad to see that the session on “How to Obtain a Permit” is actually being done twice, once in the morning and again in the evening.

7.

Discussion and possible action to adopt the Permit Process Guidelines. [Acting Director Amy Lee]

Acting Director Lee said that in 2004, the Ethics Commission drafted a policy requiring that the Department of Building Inspection issue a guideline of permit processing and directed that DBI should review permits as they come in.  Ms. Lee said that this was unrealistic because San Francisco has unique topography and building structure situations.  Ms. Lee said that DBI staff is made up of professionals and the Department needs to manage the workload, but the Department still has to comply with the guidelines set forth by the Ethics Commission.  Ms. Lee said that the Department drafted these guidelines to acknowledge the work that is done at DBI and the manner in which it is done.  Ms. Lee said that the Department treats revisions and addenda differently to applications but said that the initial direction made them the same.  Ms. Lee said that the Department is giving expedited treatment to Gold Standard Buildings and that the Department would document that situation.  Ms. Lee stated that she thought that this document would help staff and the Director because it would remove the fear that staff feels might result in a “gotcha”. Ms. Lee said that there was a generous provision allowing the Director to expedite a project if there is reasonable judgment or circumstances that would benefit the public.  Ms. Lee said that DBI was required to do this in 2004 and that requirement needed to be fulfilled, but at the same time the very real processes and business needs and customer’s needs had to be incorporated so this was the best kind of compromise.  Ms. Lee said that she worked with other departments who were required to do this and said that DPW has completed their guidelines and Planning was in the midst of completing theirs. 

 

President Walker asked for a motion on this item. 

 

Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb, that the Permit Processing Guidelines be adopted.  The motion carried unanimously.

8.

Report on number of Engineers at DBI. [Acting Director Amy Lee]

Acting Director Lee reported that DBI has 29 Engineers at present and said that there were a couple of vacant positions that the Department was in the process of filling.

9.

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.

President Walker said that she wanted to have an agenda item address the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) around federal inspections and DBI’s policy about that issue.  President Walker announced that the next meeting was scheduled for October 16, 2006.  Commissioners Grubb and Romero stated that they would not be present on October 16^th.  President Walker asked the Commissioners to let the Secretary know about their schedules and said that the Secretary would advise if the October 16^th meeting would go forward.

 

10.

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

There was no public comment.

 

11.

Adjournment.

 

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

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 051-06

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,


______________________

Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary