2.

President’s Announcements.

President Hirsch welcomed the new Commissioners that were recently sworn in, Commissioners Mel Murphy, Joe Grubb, and Michael Theriault and congratulated Debra Walker who was reappointed.  President Hirsch said that he looked forward to working with the Commissioners.

 

President Hirsch called attention to the 100-year commemoration of the 1906 earthquake coming up in April and stated that there would be exhibits and conferences with guest speakers.  President Hirsch said that he hoped the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) would be a participant in these celebrations.

 

3.

Director’s Report. [Acting Director Amy Lee]

Acting Director Amy Lee welcomed the new Commissioners.   Ms. Lee reported that she and Mr. Steve Nelson who previously worked with Rudy Nothenberg met with the Grand Jury to discuss the continuity report, DBI’s ethics report, the incompatible activities document and other items.  Ms. Lee stated that the Grand Jury was very supportive of the Department and the changes that were taking place.  Ms. Lee said that the Grand Jury might be contacting some of the Commissioners for input as well as DBI staff.  

 

Ms. Lee said that Proposition G that was passed some eighteen months ago required all departments in the City to draft an Incompatible Activities document.   Ms. Lee said that she had met with the Ethics Commission to express concerns voiced by DBI staff.  Ms. Lee stated that this document would become a meet and confer issue with the unions and asked the Commissioners to submit any input they might have before it is finalized, as this document would apply to DBI staff and the Commissioners.  President Hirsch asked when the document was due and Ms. Lee answered that there was no set date, but thought that it would be completed in the next few months. 

 

Ms. Lee reported that she had been working with Acting Deputy Director Wing Lau and Chief Building Inspector Laurence Kornfield on DBI’s participation in the earthquake centennial celebration.  Ms. Lee said that the Department would be contributing $5,000 to a symposium that would include a DBI banner and booth space.  Ms. Lee stated that DBI would be spending about $50,000 to commemorate the earthquake and would be doing training of staff and educating the public about the 1906 earthquake and the hazards of earthquakes in general.  Ms. Lee said that DBI would have its mobile unit at different locations throughout the City and said that this would be an opportunity for DBI to show the citizens of San Francisco how the Department can help with the safety of their building structures.  President Hirsch asked if these funds would be coming out of the Department’s budget.   Ms. Lee said that the funds would be coming from the strong motion funds that were to be used for seismic matters.

 

Mr. Pat Buscovich said that he wanted to acknowledge the new Commissioners and wanted to thank all of the Commissioners for their hard work including the Commissioners who previously served.   Mr. Buscovich stated that the 1906 earthquake was a huge event in San Francisco and said that this was a perfect time for the Department of Building Inspection to shine.  Mr. Buscovich challenged the Commissioners to come up with an item to help celebrate the earthquake and mentioned that one of the highlights of the celebration was going to be having an earthquake shack moved from its San Francisco Zoo location to Civic Center and building a modern day replica for comparison. 

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders began with Item #3c and said that in celebrating the 1906 earthquake people would be celebrating a disaster and the inadequacies and failure of government, just as what happened in New Orleans, where the citizenry got shuffled aside with bureaucratic entanglements and corruption.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is still corruption in this City today and said that the lack of government accountability would be one of the tenets of the 21^st Century.

 

Mr. O’Donoghue said that regarding the Grand Jury and the ethics that the Ethics Commission Prop G was very important and said that Commissioners should be held to a higher standard, just as the last Commission was.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that when Commissioner Guinnane came on the Building Inspection Commission (BIC), in order to avoid any appearance of conflict whatsoever, he put his license in suspension.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he did the same when he went to work for the Residential Builders Association and said that he thought that Commissioner Murphy should follow the example of Commissioner Guinnane.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that all Commissioners should reveal any properties that they own in San Francisco and declare that there are no illegal units in those properties.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this was important to get the trust of the public and said that there had to be one rule of law for all citizens.

4.

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 welcomed the new appointees and said that he has been a frequent customer of DBI for over 30 years and dealt with many other jurisdictions as far away as Sacramento.   Mr. Karnilowitz said that DBI had been maligned by the press and said that when all was said and done that he thought DBI provides excellent customer service. 

 

Mr. Karnilowitz said that he wanted to wish Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson who was leaving the Department well and said that Mr. Hutchinson was an excellent person to deal with.   Mr. Karnilowitz said that Mr. Hutchinson always had an open door policy and was accessible to everyone and said that he hoped this would carry on with his replacement. 

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue announced that he would be appearing the next week on the Art Brazoni show speaking about politics.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the reelection for Mayor had already begun and said that he wanted the new Commissioners to understand that this Commission was elected by the people in order to give the public a forum.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Mayor Newsom operates through headlines and said that the Mayor’s style of government regarding this Commission is totally different from the past.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that there had only been two BIC meetings of value in the past five months and said that this was a curtailing of the flow of information to the public.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this Commission was not a Residential Builders Association (RBA) Commission and never was as evidenced by the fact that the RBA pulled only 300 of the 55,000 permits issued each year.  Mr. O’Donoghue noted that the meeting was in a different room than usual and said that he was expecting the BIC to be pulled off of the air.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he would be making comments at the Planning Commission, Board of Permit Appeals and Board of Supervisors’ meetings and going back to basics to ensure honesty, truthfulness and integrity. 

 

Secretary Aherne said that she wanted to clarify that the special meeting was being held in Room 416 as this was the only room available and the regular BIC meetings would go back to being held in Room 400 on the first and third Monday’s of each month.

 

5.

Report, discussion and possible action on the proposed budget of the Department of Building Inspection for fiscal year 2006/2007. [President Hirsch to read letter from Mayor Newsom regarding fiscal responsibility. Presentation of budget by Acting Director Amy Lee & Diane Lim, Administration and Finance]

 

President Hirsch read a letter from Mayor Newsom asking the Commission to be creative in planning for next year’s budget along with being sensitive to the needs of the people of the City and County of San Francisco.

 

Acting Director Amy Lee said that the Department is fortunate because DBI does not receive any money from the General Fund, but generates its own revenue.   Ms. Lee spoke about the mission of the Department and tied that mission into the budget needs.  Ms. Lee reported that the Department had been able to hire 32 permanent positions last year along with 12 temporary, exempt positions and said that this greatly reduced the backlog although there is still a need for more positions.  Ms. Lee stated that 60 to 80% of staff could retire and the Department is working to prepare for succession planning. 

 

Ms. Lee reported that training was a top priority along with technology improvements for the Department.  Ms. Lee said that the proposed budget would continue to improve DBI’s vehicle fleet as last year the Department replaced 16 aging vehicles and are proposing to replace even more this year with either CNG or hybrid vehicles being purchased.

 

Ms. Lee said that the projected revenue budget for 05/06 was $37.4M, but the revenues had been very strong for the last six months and the Department is now projecting $46M in revenue so this is $7 to $9M over what was projected.   Ms. Lee said that because the permit revenue was greater than expected this year the Department was projecting that increased inspection services would be required next year. 

 

President Hirsch asked if this meant that the Department would have this money as a surplus.   Ms. Lee said that most of the money was going to be spent in the proposed budget for one time expenditures.  Ms. Lee stated that she wanted to agendize an item for a future meeting to discuss DBI having a “Rainy Day Fund” just as the City is now required to have.  Ms. Lee said that the Department used to have a surplus, but due to transfers to other departments over the past few years that surplus was now only $800,000. 

 

Commissioner Walker asked if there were any proposed transfers in the upcoming budget.  Ms. Lee said that right now there were none and she did not anticipate any.

 

Ms. Lee said that DBI would need a surplus in the event of a disaster in the City when the Department would have to evaluate buildings and would not be collecting permit or inspection fees.   Ms. Lee said that consultants and other jurisdictions have indicated that it would be wise to keep about 30% of the Department’s operating budget in reserve for any emergencies. 

 

Commissioner Murphy asked why it was proposed to hire only two new Inspectors.   Ms. Lee answered that six Inspectors had been hired in the past year and six more would be added in the next six months so that was why only two were budgeted. 

 

Ms. Lee thanked Ms. Diane Lim for all of her hard work on the budget.

 

Ms. Lee said that the Department was asking for 23 new positions, but expected a few of them to be cut as the budget goes through the process of approval by the Mayor’s Office and the Budget Analyst. 

 

President Hirsch and Commissioner Walker asked about the transfer of surpluses in the past.  Ms. Lee said that there were transfers in the past and a lawsuit was filed regarding that practice; it was ruled that these transfers were lawful because the expenses covered were offered on behalf of DBI in areas such as the Fire Department or Human Services.  Ms. Lee reported that DBI has been generous with Planning by helping with the expenses of permit integration and moving Planning to 1650 Mission Street in order to have all divisions of DBI at 1660 Mission Street.

 

Ms. Lee reported that there was an increase in professional services and said that $150,000 would be set aside for the Code Enforcement Outreach Program; the aging telephone system would be improved and an integrated document tracking system implemented.   Ms. Lee stated that DBI is the keeper of many City records, some stored on microfiche and CD Roms, but the Department would be preparing public documents to make them accessible online. 

 

President Hirsch said that the Department should have a membership in the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association (SPUR). Ms. Lee said that both she and Laurence Kornfield were members last year and said she would make sure that this item was included in the budget. 

 

Commissioner Grubb asked if the revenue projections were covered by DBI’s fee structure and if there were going to be any fee increases to meet the proposed budget.   Ms. Lee said that there were no anticipated fee increases and stated that a fee study was being conducted that would be completed by February and would be helpful to the Department with the budget approval.  Ms. Lee said that most constituents are not looking for a fee decrease, but are looking for better service for their money.   

 

Commissioner Theriault asked about an expenditure labeled ATC-20-2-5 and Ms. Diane Lim explained that these were funds for DBI’s Emergency Response Vehicle to perform a communication’s system update.   Commissioner Theriault asked what the Edgehill Special District was.  Ms. Lee explained that this was an area of the City where mudslides had occurred in the past and the Department was going to hire Engineers in order to provide more expertise in the Department. 

 

President Hirsch had concerns about this expenditure being listed as expense for a Mechanical Engineer.  Acting Deputy Director Wing Lau explained that the person hired would be an Administrative Engineer working primarily in mechanical plan check, but would also be handling communications with the City Attorney’s Office when necessary and legal documentation.  Ms. Lee said that this Engineer would primarily be doing Mechanical, but would work in all aspects of plan checking.

 

Commissioner Lee said that he was concerned that the monies set aside for training of employees had not been spent.   Commissioner Lee stated that it is very important for City workers to get training, as there is a different dynamic in the corporate world that is not present in civil service.  Ms. Lim said that many of the bills for training, such as the California Association of Building Officials (CALBO) training, had not been received yet and were not posted to the report.  Ms. Lee said that the Department was focusing on training and said that a great deal of training had been scheduled for the next six months and for the coming year. 

 

Commissioner Lee said that he would recommend that the Department purchase hybrid vehicles instead of natural gas as the natural gas vehicles tend to break down and are limited as to how far one can go on a tank of gas.  Ms. Lee said that she was working with the Mayor’s Office to purchase all hybrid vehicles mainly because the fueling stations for natural gas are scarce.  Commissioner Lee asked if there were any hybrid pick-up trucks on the market.  Ms. Lim said that there were not and reported that the Department is proposing the purchase of six regular pick-up trucks.

 

President Hirsch asked why there was such a huge increase in Professional Services.  Ms. Lee said that the increase was because most of the Information Technology (IT) purchases were included in that item.  Ms. Lee stated that most of the figures included in the $4.6M expenditure were estimates and said that these numbers would most likely be reduced significantly as actual proposals are received.

 

Commissioner Grubb asked what the submittal date for the budget was.   Ms. Lim said that it was February 21, 2006.  President Hirsch said that there would be another reading of the budget before the Commission.  Ms. Lee said that she would encourage the Commissioners to submit any suggestions or changes and said that as previously mentioned when work orders from other departments or proposals from vendors are received the budget will change and be more accurate. 

 

President Hirsch asked if the quality of microfiche documents would improve with the purchase of new equipment.  Ms. Lee said that the Department was in the process of transferring all of the records from microfiche onto CD Roms and this would improve the quality.  Ms. Lee stated that the Department has only 22 licenses for this software, but are hoping to purchase enough so that all DBI employees would have access to this information; the next step would be to have public documents available online.  Commissioner Grubb asked if the Department had a redundancy program for these records.  Ms. Lee said that the Department had a Records Retention Policy and had off-site storage.

 

President Hirsch asked for public comment on the budget.

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders (RBA) said that the City’s deficit could be reduced greater if the process could move faster.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that project sponsors are experiencing delays in every aspect of building and said that the backlog is getting larger.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the sale of condos is being held up because condo maps are backlogged and said that experienced employees are leaving City employ because of low morale. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that Todd Huntington was gone from Streets, Use and Mapping; Jim Hutchinson was leaving DBI so the net effect of the policies of the Mayor is that morale is at an all time low.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Mayor should declare a state of emergency and DBI should move to work for efficiency with the Department of Public Works (DPW) to get these condo maps approved.

 

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that he would encourage the Commission to hire extra people to fill positions that are vacated by retirement or to cover for Inspectors when someone is out sick. 

 

President Hirsch urged all of the Commissioners to read the budget again and to come back with any suggestions or comments before the next meeting when the budget will come before the Commission for its second hearing.

6.

Update on the status of procedures to hire a permanent DBI Director. [President Hirsch]

 

President Hirsch said that he wanted to give an update, especially to the newly appointed Commissioners, on the procedures for hiring a permanent Director for the Department.   President Hirsch said that last year the previous Commission voted to hire an Executive Search Firm to aid in the hiring of a permanent Director; the firm chosen was Bob Murray & Associates out of Sacramento.  President Hirsch said that this firm was chosen, but not yet hired.  President Hirsch said that it was voted to hire Advance Placements Services, a web-based job-posting firm, to work in conjunction with Bob Murray & Associates.  President Hirsch said that there was a delay in proceeding with the hiring of these firms as the Commission was waiting for an approved job description from the Department of Human Resources (DHR).  President Hirsch stated that the final draft of that job description had been recently approved and was in the Commissioner’s meeting package for review.  President Hirsch asked that the Commissioners review both the old job description and the newly approved description and come back with any suggestions or changes. President Hirsch said that the next steps involved would be to approve the draft as submitted by DHR, enter into contract with Bob Murray & Associates, and get approval from the Controller’s Office and expedited approval from DHR.  President Hirsch said that this has been a long and drawn out process, and said that the Commission should now move ahead. 

 

President Hirsch asked Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian if the Commission could make changes to the job description approved by DHR.  Ms. Boyajian said that there were minimum requirements and the Commission could add to those.  President Hirsch said that the Commission certainly would not go below the minimum requirements, but wanted to make sure that the Commission had the authority to make the requirements more stringent.  Ms. Boyajian said that she believed that the Commission could do so, but said that she was still checking with the City Attorney that deals with DHR to find out exactly what the BIC is authorized to do in the way of changing the job description.  President Hirsch said that he wanted to have a full discussion on this item at the next meeting.

 

Commissioner Murphy asked if Bob Murray & Associates was the only firm solicited by the Commission.   President Hirsch answered that there was a sub-committee consisting of Commissioners Guinnane, Lee and Romero who solicited four proposals, two from New York firms and two from the Sacramento area.  President Hirsch said that this sub-committee culled it down to two firms who made presentations to the Commission and Bob Murray & Associates was chosen.  

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that the hiring of a permanent Director was supposed to take three months and now it has been going on for almost twelve months with no interviewing in sight.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the Mayor did the same thing with the hiring of a Chief of Police and said that there were weaknesses and fissures occurring throughout every department in the City.  Mr. O’Donoghue spoke about low morale in DPW, the Police Department and the Planning Department and said that the Commission would have difficulty finding anyone capable who would be willing to take on the job of Director of DBI.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the RBA had seen this situation coming and have exited San Francisco in favor of building in other jurisdictions.

7.

Review and approval of the minutes of the August 1, 2005 meeting.    

 

Secretary Aherne said that only those Commissioners who were on the Commission on August 1, 2005 would be voting on approval.

 

Commissioner Lee made one correction to page 2 where the word sated should be stated.

 

Commissioner Lee made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walker, that the minutes be approved as corrected.   The motion carried unanimously.

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 001-06

 

8.

Review and approval of the minutes of the August 22, 2005 meeting.

 

Commissioner Walker said that on page 11 of the minutes her vote was Nay. 

 

Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by President Hirsch that the minutes be approved as corrected.  The motion carried unanimously.

 

RESOULUTION NO. BIC 001A-06

9.

Review and approval of the minutes of the September 12, 2005 meeting.   

Commissioner Walker said that she was not listed as being present. 

 

Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Romero that the minutes by approved as corrected.   The motion carried unanimously.

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 002-06

10.

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.

• Copy of e-mail sent by Jim Aldrich of the ECD-OES Disaster Council dated 1/17/2006 to all DBI staff regarding Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort Update.
• Copy of e-mail sent by Chief Building Inspector Laurence Kornfield to all DBI staff regarding training for the SFPD Vice Crime Coordination:  Protocol for observing and reporting vice crimes in the field. 

Commissioner Lee said that he wanted some clarification on item b and asked if this was about crimes being committed by DBI Inspection staff when out in the field.  Acting Director Amy Lee said that this program was to help the Inspectors with how to report crimes that they might observe while out in the field.

11.

Review Commissioner’s Questions and Matters.

• 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.                                    
• 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.

 

Commissioner Walker said that she did not know if her comments would come under item a or b, but said that she had been contacted by someone from the Health Department regarding issues with Healthy Families and Single Room Occupancies (SROs).  Commissioner Walker said that this would involve Housing Inspectors working with the Health Department on such items as mold and mildew.  Acting Director Lee said that she had working with Rajiv Bhatia to coordinate the efforts of DBI and the Health Department.

 

President Hirsch said that the next regular meeting would be February 6, 2006 and then the meeting that would normally take place on February 20, 2006 would be cancelled due to the President’s Day holiday.   President Hirsch stated that he would not be present at the meeting scheduled for March 6, 2006 and asked the Secretary to check on the availability of a room for February 27, 2006 should a Special Meeting be necessary; the next regular meeting would be March 20, 2006. 

 

President Hirsch said that at the next meeting the Commission would be electing a President and Vice-President and selecting Commissioners to serve on the various sub-committees.   President Hirsch asked Ms. Lee to report on what steps were being taken to replace Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson and Chief Plumbing Inspector Dennis King who were both retiring. 

 

President Hirsch asked that a report on the Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety (CAPSS) program be agendized for a future meeting.

 

Commissioner Walker asked if the Department could report on the issue raised by Mr. O’Donoghue regarding condo mapping.

 

Acting Director Lee asked Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian what the Commissioner’s purview was on appointments to staff vacancies and did she need approval from the Commission.  Ms. Boyajian said that Ms. Lee would appoint to the positions and could update the Commission.

 

Commissioner Murphy asked if the Department had a permanent Engineer on staff.  Ms. Lee said that Hanson Tom was the Chief Principal Engineer and also Wing Lau who was serving as the Permit Services Acting Deputy Director.

 

Ms. Lee said that she did not want to disclose any personal information about Jim Hutchinson, but stated that Mr. Hutchinson was still employed by DBI until April.  Ms. Lee said that she did not think it was appropriate to discuss this information publicly.

 

President Hirsch said that there was an issue regarding a high rise situation that was recently reported in the newspaper and asked that a report from the Department be agendized.

 

Secretary Aherne stated that she had received two appeals that would have to come before the Commission in a timely manner and said that she would be sending copies to the Commissioners in case any one would care to visit the sites on Tennessee Street.  Secretary Aherne said that the Commission would also have to meet as the Abatement Appeals Board in the near future.

12.

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

                     

Ms. Janan New of the San Francisco Apartment Association said that she was asked to appear by one of the Association’s Board members who had heard from either a Senior Housing or Building Inspector that the Marina District was being turned into a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Control District. Ms. New asked if there was any validity to this rumor.   Acting Director Lee said that the Mayor’s Office, DPW and other departments were working with FEMA to do a flood zone map.  Ms. Lee said that FEMA was doing a Citywide and Bay Area assessment for insurance and reimbursement policies.  Commissioner Walker said that it would be good to have an update on this issue at the next meeting. 

 

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that with the issue of condo mapping DBI had worked very closely with DPW in the past and in fact DBI had funded a position at DPW to keep the condo mapping current.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that it was an error not bringing this work over to DBI when the Charter creating DBI was approved.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that keeping the condo mapping current brings millions of dollars of revenue into the City especially now that State laws have been passed allowing condo builders to sell the condos ahead of time before completion. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he believed that DBI also funded the Planning position for condo mapping at DPW.

 

Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the RBA was predicting a slow down next year as outsourcing is increasing and builders both large and small are moving out of San Francisco because of delays created by the Board of Supervisors. 

 

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that he sits on three different Public Advisory Committees and said that he had attended many, many BIC meetings over the years.  Mr. Karnilowitz stated that the one thing he does not see very often at the BIC meetings are people appearing to complain.  Mr. Karnilowitz said that DBI might need some fine tuning as nothing is perfect, but it is not as bad as the newspapers would lead everyone to believe, otherwise there would be hoards of people lining up to complain.

13.

Adjournment.

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

 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 003-06

 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:35 a.m.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,


______________________

Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary