Building Inspection Commission
BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)
Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
Wednesday, January 15, 2003
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 408
Adopted Wednesday, February 5, 2003
MINUTES
The meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 4:30 p.m. by President Fillon.
1. Roll Call - Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified.
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
Alfonso Fillon, President Denise D’Anne, Commissioner
Bobbie Sue Hood, Vice-President Esther Marks, Commissioner
Roy Guinnane, Commissioner Rodrigo Santos, Commissioner
Matt Brown, Commissioner
Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary
D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:
Frank Chiu, Director
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Sonya Harris, Secretary
1. Call to Order and Roll Call.
Roll call was taken and a quorum was established.
2. President’s Announcements.
President Fillon stated that since the meeting started so late due to the Abatement Appeals Board hearings he wanted to continue all of the items except for Item #5, the Budget. This was acceptable to all of the Commissioners.
3. Director’s Report. [Director Chiu]
a. Update on the status of construction costs for the building of 560 Mission Street.
b. Report on the status of Training and Certification for Housing Inspectors.
c. Report on the status of the California State Building Code adoption for future codes.
d. Report on the status of Supervisor Jake McGoldrick’s proposed legislation regarding Unlawful Demolition/Major Exterior Alterations to residential buildings.
Continued.
4. 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.
5. Report, discussion and possible action on the proposed budget of the Department of Building Inspection for fiscal year 2003/2004. [Taras Madison, Administration and Finance Manager]
Ms. Taras Madison said that the Commissioners had the proposed fiscal year 2003/2004 budget before them and similar to other budgets it is based on those strategic issues that the Commission, staff and customers have identified as important for the Department. Ms. Madison stated that those issues were to: Continue to improve public access to DBI services; Continue to ensure staff are adequately trained and meet AB717 requirements; Continue to improve coordination with city departments and the community; Continue to ensure fair and safe provisions of all services; and Continue to improve timeliness and effectiveness of the Department of Building Inspection services.
Ms. Madison stated that there were two attachments in the budget, the revenues as attachment one and the expenditures as attachment two. Ms. Madison said that she would start off with the revenues. Ms. Madison reported that this fiscal year DBI is on track with revenue collections and are making the proposed revenue projections for next fiscal year based on collections for the first six months. Ms. Madison said that based on those first six months for this fiscal year the Department was projecting that approximately $28M would be collected in revenues for next fiscal year. Ms. Madison stated that this was a little bit more than what the Department is budgeted for now and said that this number is expected to go up. Ms. Madison said that the good news is that there were some minor fee increases and a new fee and that is not really reflected in these six months because the increases did not go into effect until December 8th so there is barely an entire month of activity. Ms. Madison said that the Department expected to receive an additional $1M
due to these fee increases. Ms. Madison stated that just this month there was a large project, the Bloomingdale project, so there is another $1M. Ms. Madison said that toward the end of the fiscal year the Department would probably collect about $29M; however, the Department wants to keep a conservative estimate for next year.
Ms. Madison said that similar to prior fiscal years the reason that the Department is now collecting only $28M as opposed to $32M, $34M, and $36M that was being collected before is because the Department’s two major revenue sources have declined. Ms. Madison referred to Attachment One, Page Three and said that the first revenue source was building permits and the Department budgeted $11M, however through the month of December only $5M has been collected and it is projected that only about $10M will be collected for the year. Ms. Madison stated that the good news was that the second major revenue source, plan checking fees, the Department budgeted $5M, but so far $3M has been collected so the projection for the years is about $6M so these items are canceling each other out. Ms. Madison said that there are some minor increases in other revenue sources so the Department is okay for this fiscal year.
Ms. Madison referred to Attachment Two, Expenditures, and said that it was organized by summaries. Ms. Madison said that the first part of Attachment Two was actually summary information by program so this included every single line item in the budget and it was compared to the current fiscal year. Ms. Madison said that the second summary was even more specific by program. Ms. Madison said that on the first page of Administration the permanent salaries proposed are $2.6M and the final spreadsheets are even more detailed by specific items and show exactly what each division was requesting, particularly in items such as training, travel, materials and supplies.
Ms. Madison said that there were a few things that she wanted to highlight. Ms. Madison reported that expenditures overall were going to be about $32.5M and said that the Department has continued to try to reduce expenditures as much as possible to keep as close as possible to the revenue streams; however, some increases are necessary. Ms. Madison stated that one of the increases in the Department’s budget was training that has gone from $159,000 to $178,000, but that increase is absolutely necessary to continue AB717 training and there are other areas that the Department has to do training on such as lead and mold. Ms. Madison said that there was an increase in materials and supplies and stated that she would go over significant increases. Ms. Madison said that the increase is necessary and last year the amount was $285,000 and this year the Department is requesting $364,000 because of upgrades due to ergonomic chairs and screens in the amount of $35,000. Ms. Madison stated that a lot of the divisions were requesting safety equipment, such as new boots, safety supplies and flashlights. Ms. Madison said that in addition to that there was an increase in computer supplies, but it is for things that are necessary. Ms. Madison said that last year although the Department had budgeted for a lot of things, because the revenues dropped so drastically, the Department put off buying a lot of items. Ms. Madison stated that the Department did not purchase any vehicles and now it is proposed to purchase five replacement vehicles, which really isn’t enough, but the Department is trying to do things incrementally. Ms. Madison asked for questions.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about the budgeted amount for the City Attorney. Ms. Madison said that she had forgotten to go over that item and stated that the reason the amount for City Attorney’s fee had increased was because historically the Department has always overspent on the City Attorney’s bill and this higher amount takes into consideration some of the high profile cases, particularly AIMCO. Ms. Madison said that the Department knows that it is going to cost a lot of money and are trying to budget it up front. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Department had expenses of $1.4M for the year what was being recouped back on the $1.4M and was the Department getting all of that back plus more. Ms. Madison said that the Department does not get back all of the money and referred to Attachment One, page three and said that under Code Enforcement last year the Department received about $500,000 for litigation and some of the $367,000 so the Department will get about $600,000 to $700,000 from the City Attorney. Commissioner Guinnane said that every time he tries to cut back on the City Attorney’s bill they come back and say that if they spend $1.00 the City Attorney’s Office is getting back $1.50 for the Department. Commissioner Guinnane said that obviously that is not the case. Ms. Madison said that she did not think that it was $1.00 for $1.00, but the Department does recoup most of the cost. Ms. Madison said that last year the Department spent about $800,000 and got back about $600,000. Commissioner Guinnane said that this year there was a lot of money budgeted. Ms. Madison said that it was $1.5M. Ms. Madison said that the Department’s assumption would be, depending on the length of the case, that the amount received would increase to reflect some of those things.
Commissioner Guinnane asked what could be done with the premium pay and the overtime and asked if there was any way to get those numbers down because revenues are way down. Vice-President Hood asked what was the overtime for. Ms. Madison said that it was for a variety of things and reported that the number had decreased somewhat. Ms. Madison stated that the amount included off-hour inspections that the Department actually receives revenue for, but it still has to be budgeted. Vice-President Hood asked why inspections would occur off hours. Director Chiu said that in high-rise buildings during the weekdays and daytime there are occupants in the building so that is the wrong time to be doing testing. Director Chiu stated that the Department has come to an agreement with the industry that these types of inspections would be done after hours when there is nobody occupying the building to accommodate the industry because that is the only time that an entire life safety testing could be done. Vice-President Hood asked if the owner of the building was paying for this testing. Director Chiu said that the owner was paying the overtime. Ms. Lee referred to the revenue sheets for building, electrical and plumbing and said that the off-hour inspections were shown there. Ms. Lee said that electrical inspections are used the most because they are checking for life safety issues and almost $400,000 was received in revenue for those inspections. Ms. Lee again referred to the revenue section of the report and stated that the Department appreciated the Commission’s concern about overtime and were making sure that management were approving off-hour inspection overtime, but if overtime is requested and is not going to be reimbursed that is tightly restricted.
Commissioner Guinnane asked if premium pay was standby pay and stated that he thought that had been cut way down. Ms. Madison said that premium pay was standby pay, but is also other premiums because certain classifications would get bilingual pay, word processing pay and engineering pay. Ms. Madison stated that there are a lot of different things that are included in that figure. Commissioner Guinnane asked for a breakdown of the people that qualified for the premium pay to see how it is distributed. Ms. Madison asked if Commissioner Guinnane wanted the people or the classifications. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he wanted the individuals. Commissioner D’Anne said that she had a question on the bilingual pay and asked if there was a record that was kept of how long people use their bilingual talents. Ms. Lee said that in order to get approval for bilingual pay, an individual has to demonstrate a month or two weeks of documented phone calls and DHR and the Controller’s Office have to approve the bilingual pay. Ms. Lee said that someone would have to demonstrate usage over a period of a month or two weeks and it would have to be continuous.
Commissioner Guinnane asked where the MIS was on the budget information. Ms. Madison reported that MIS was in a variety of places and referred to the summary page, item 027 Professional Services, that number has been consistently over $1M over the past three years. Commissioner Guinnane asked if all of the information on MIS could be put under one title instead of putting it in different slots. Ms. Madison said that the City’s budget is set up by activity, not just by MIS so there are MIS Professional Services where there will be contracts, but then there is MIS for materials and supplies. Ms. Madison said that the Department would be buying disks, computers and those sorts of things so it is a variety of things and is not just called MIS. Commissioner Guinnane asked Ms. Madison to give a breakdown for all of the monies that are spent on MIS regardless of how it is allocated for the next meeting. Ms. Madison said that she could and said that some of that information was available in some of the attachments, but stated that she could make it easier. Commissioner Guinnane said that he wanted a total of what goes into MIS annually. Ms. Madison said that she would do that. President Fillon said that an MIS meeting was scheduled and asked if it would be possible to get that information for the MIS meeting to take place next week.
Commissioner D’Anne asked about the Department ordering new cars. Ms. Madison said that the Department was not ordering new cars, but replacement cars for the five that died on the Department this year. Commissioner D’Anne said that they would in fact be new cars because the Department would be buying new cars even though she understood that there would be no extra cars. Ms. Madison stated that the Department had lost about five cars in the past year and as recently as November three were lost in one month and then another two. Vice-President Hood asked how those cars got lost. Ms. Madison said that the cars were old as most of them were Ford 1992 Tempos and it would cost about $3,000 each to repair them. Ms. Madison said that there was always the same problem with transmissions and the Department still has a lot of Ford Tempos and according to Central Shops this normally happens after a certain time. Ms. Madison said that it doesn’t make sense to put that much money in an eleven-year-old car, so the Department gives the car to Central Shops and if a new car is ordered that becomes a replacement vehicle. Ms. Madison said that the budget distinguishes between a new car, as if the Department was going to increase the count, but a replacement car is just replacing the scrapped car. Vice-President Hood said that she would suggest that the Department should buy Hondas instead of Tempos because they will last a lot longer. Ms. Madison said that back then the City was buying Ford Tempos, but for the most part, the Department will now get Hondas because most of the cars are now required to be CNGs and that is normally a Toyota or a Honda. Vice-President Hood asked what a CNG was. Ms. Madison said those are compressed natural gas vehicles. Vice-President Hood asked if those were a lot more expensive. Ms. Madison stated that they are more expensive. Director Chiu explained that under the policy adopted by the Board of Supervisors every Department is being encouraged to buy these natural gas cars. Director Chiu said that in most cases DBI does not have the choice to ask for a certain type of car because the purchaser for the City asks for bids and then determines what the best deal for the City is at that time. Director Chiu said that the Department does not have any control over this issue. Vice-President Hood said that if the Board of Supervisor’s wanted to have more “green” cars she would recommend a Toyota Prius because that is a very reliable car and wouldn’t be as expensive to maintain as a Ford and would not have all of the mechanical problems of compressed natural gas. Ms. Madison said that this would be also be an option, but the reason the Department had these problems before is because these cars were purchased ten years ago and the Department will now replace those with a better car. Vice-President Hood asked if the Department could figure out a way to get Prius’. Ms. Madison said that those are listed as an approved car on the list. Vice-President Hood asked if the Department could request the Prius’ as they are very kind to the environment. Ms. Madison said that she would see what could be done. Commissioner D’Anne asked if these cars were hybrids. Ms. Madison said that some of them are hybrids and that up to this point the Department has purchased mainly CNG vehicles as replacement vehicles and have not purchased any hybrids. Commissioner D’Anne asked if there were fueling stations for the CNG vehicles. Ms. Madison said that the City has two fueling stations in the City and normally whoever is assigned to the vehicle goes to Central Shops to get training on filing the CNG cars. President Fillon asked if Central Shops supports the maintenance on these vehicles. Ms. Madison reported that yes that was correct. Commissioner D’Anne asked how many miles could be gotten on a CNG fill up. Ms. Madison said that she did not know because she does not drive any City vehicles. Ms. Madison stated that there were some complaints earlier with the CNG Ford Taurus’ and no Department wanted them because they were not very fuel efficient, but the Hondas appear to be very fuel-efficient and there have not been many complaints about those.
President Fillon said that the vehicles were under equipment and asked if that was why the figure went from $12,000 to $241,000. Ms. Madison said that $125,000 of that was actually for vehicles and the rest is for MIS supplies. Vice-President Hood expressed surprise that it would take $125,000 to buy five cars. Ms. Madison said that the CNG Hondas are budgeted at $25,000 each and that is another reason that, not that the Department doesn’t want to drive “green” cars, the amount is so high because they are considerably more expensive and the before the Department was spending $12,000 - $14,000 for a Tempo. Vice-President Hood said that for $19,000 one of those gas/electric Toyota models could be purchased and that would save $30,000. Assistant Director Lee stated that these are City negotiated prices and are set by the Central Shops and there is certain criterion required in order to do business with the City. President Fillon said this would like when the army buys a screwdriver.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about the money allotted to DPW for building repair and asked if this was money that was advanced out that the Department gets back when the buildings are liened. Ms. Madison said that everything that started with 081 is money that is sent to other City departments and for the most part it has not been adjusted very much so the numbers might change. Commissioner Guinnane asked why $25,000 was being sent to DPW General Administration. Ms. Madison stated that actually DPW assists with a variety of things as they do some contracting out for DBI and there are some students from the Project Pull that is run by DPW so it is a variety of things. Ms. Madison said that a lot of it is because DBI does not have its own “as needed” contracting services when technical assistance is needed so DBI relies on DPW people to do it and they charge DBI an overhead. Ms. Madison said that it does not mean that the Department spends $25,000, but that is the budget that has been there for a while. Commissioner Guinnane asked what the technical assistance was used for. Ms. Madison said that for example, with landslides sometimes the Department has to bring in an outside agency to actually assist with that and DBI has not set up a contract to that so in the past DBI has worked through DBI to do that because they have a standing “as needed” RFP and DBI works through them and pays through them. Commissioner Guinnane asked why DBI could not come along and eliminate DPW and take that on. Ms. Madison stated that the Department was proposing to do that and referred to the budget for plan check services, which included $15,000, and in Building Inspection Services it was also being proposed to do the landslide portion of it. Ms. Madison said that it was complicated because there were so many tables, but called attention to Professional Services, 027, Building Inspection Attachment 4 the Commission should see $15,000 to provide technical assistant to plan check staff for projects with sophisticated design techniques.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about temporary salaries and how many temps were in the Department. Ms. Madison said that the budget did not go by the number of temp salaries, but just included a dollar amount for those salaries. Ms. Madison stated that she would have to check to see how many actual temporary positions were still in place. Commissioner Guinnane said that he knew that ten temps were laid off and asked how long a person was employed as a temp before they became a permanent employee of DBI. Ms. Madison said that a temp could not automatically become a regular employee and what normally happens is that every six months the Department has to renew the temporary requisitions and in order for a person to become a regular employee they would have to go through an interview and go through the process to become a permanent employee. Ms. Madison said that it would not matter how long a person worked they would not automatically become a permanent employee. Commissioner Guinnane asked if DBI went through an outside company to hire temps. Ms. Madison answered no. Vice-President Hood said that being a temp just meant that a person had not gone through the regular testing and gotten ordained as it were. Commissioner Guinnane said that it would be very helpful if he could get the information on this MIS as he was very concerned about that.
Commissioner D’Anne asked about mail service for DBI and asked what was being mailed. Ms. Madison said that DBI mails out notices and a lot of different things in Housing and CPB so the Department has to pay the City department that handles that a lot of money. Ms. Madison gave examples of mailings such as department license notices, boiler inspection notices and said that CPB does a lot of huge, bulk mailings. Ms. Madison said that this was not like mail that the Commission gets from the Secretary, but included bulk mailing. Commissioner Brown said that the Commission knows that the Department sends out at least twenty pounds of paper at least twice a month to the seven Commissioners. Commissioner D’Anne said that she believes this is outrageous and is very upset about this. Commissioner D’Anne stated that a package received from the attorney was all on one side and said that she could calculate the savings on stamps alone and realized it was not the Department’s fault, but said that the Department should require outside people to copy on both sides of the paper in order to save money and trees. Commissioner D’Anne said that the information copied on single sided paper has to be remailed and the customer should be charged for the postage as the world is running out of trees. Commissioner D’Anne said that things are mailed out to everybody under the sun and the Department should check to make sure that these mailings are wanted. Ms. Madison said that most of the mailings are required.
Vice-President Hood asked about the mandatory fringe benefits amount that is going up about $500,000 and asked if that was based on salaries or cost of living increases. Ms. Madison said that it was based on salaries and includes health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance and a variety of things and stated that this number was calculated by the budget system. Ms. Madison stated that it depended on how much the salaries are and then that amount is adjusted. Vice-President Hood said that the only way to reduce this amount would be to reduce permanent salaries. Ms. Madison said that was correct.
President Fillon asked what the other current expenses increase was about. Ms. Madison said that this included things such as the scanning of microfilm and the indexing. Ms. Madison stated that currently the Department has been spending over $200,000 and have now increased this amount to $300,000, which includes $150,000 for the credit card fees; although, the Department has said that it would not be paying credit fees and won’t cover the cost for the customers, the Department has to have money budgeted in order to pay the credit card company. Ms. Madison stated that when DBI gets the money back from the customer this will be abated so the money is there, but DBI has to have a line item with the authority to spend the money before it is actually collected. President Fillon asked why the budgeted amount went from $654,000 to $804,000. Ms. Madison said that this is a big jump, but $150,0000 alone is just to cover credit cards fees to have an appropriation to spend the money when the bill comes in, but then once the money is recouped it will go back to cover the costs. President Fillon asked how much of the $804,000 would be recouped. Ms. Madison said she thought it would be the $150,000, but the rest of it is actually services. Commissioner Guinnane asked how many staff people actually work on the credit card fees that are used in the Department. Ms. Madison said that everyone in CPB works on the credit card because if a customer goes to the counter to pay whoever rings up the transaction would ring it up by credit card. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the merchant charged a certain fee and then DBI gets reimbursed that fee. Commissioner Guinnane asked if anything extra was added in to this fee for handling. Ms. Madison said that no, the Department did not add anything extra for that and said that actually the reimbursement would be recouped through the new $20.00 CPB fee. Vice-President Hood asked what CPB stood for. Ms. Madison said it was Central Permit Bureau.
Commissioner Guinnane said that the number for maintenance on the old cars is really out of control and asked what could be done to get those numbers down and farm the repair out to somebody else. Ms. Madison reported that to get it down the old cars should be replaced, as over 40% of DBI’s vehicles are over ten years old. Ms. Madison said that the Department has at least another fifteen or twenty 1992 or 1993 Ford Tempos cars that Central Shops predicts will have the same transmission problems next year. Ms. Madison said that the one way to get the maintenance costs down is to get better cars and in answer to Commissioner Guinnane’s second question, the Department cannot really farm any of the work out because Central Shops, similar to the City Attorney, Worker’s Comp and other City departments are established to provide those services to other City departments and DBI cannot go anywhere else to get the work done. Commissioner Guinnane asked what Ms. Madison thought the average cost to maintain a vehicle per year was in respect to repairs. Commissioner Guinnane said that it seems that some of them get brakes five or six times in a few months. Ms. Madison said that it would be hard to say because some cars get away with just the $50.00 annual check every year, even some of the ones that are old maybe because people have taken better care of them. Ms. Madison said that most of the time when an older car goes into the shop the Department is spending at least $300.00. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the older cars, on an annual basis, were costing $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 or $6,000. Ms. Madison said that it would not be that much for each car, but stated that she would get the information for the Commission. Commissioner Guinnane asked what it would cost to put a transmission in one of these cars. Ms. Madison said that it costs at least $1,500 and that is why the Department did not save the three that that transmission went out in because the cars are not even worth that amount, but that was the quote from Central Shops. Commissioner Guinnane asked if when the Department puts a car in the shop is it an open ended ticket and no estimate is given. Ms. Madison said that this does not occur anymore because DBI has told Central Shops that because of the budget, the Department has to be notified of any repairs that would cost over $200.00. Ms. Madison said that now Central Shops would call the Department and ask if they should proceed with the repair. Ms. Madison stated that there was a problem in the past where a for example, a 1989 Plymouth Reliant was repaired for $1,000 and the Department would not have chosen to do that.
Ms. Madison said that because the Department is proposing $33M in expenditures and $28M in revenues, once again this year the Department will have to use its surplus funds to make up the difference. Ms. Madison stated that the Department is still looking at the budget to try and come up with more reductions. Ms. Madison said that in future meetings, either in the Budget Committee or with the entire Commission, there will be changes in numbers, primarily because of the work orders. Ms. Madison said that, while the Department does have some control, another Department could put in a work order for x amount of dollars and DBI could say that the amount is unacceptable, the other Department could elect not to do the work.
Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Department had seen a large amount of requests for refunds for projects not going forward. Ms. Madison said that she had not seen a big demand, but there have been some large refund requests and the Deputy Director has prepared a report on that. Ms. Madison said that the amount of requests has not gone up, but the numbers have gone up because it is for some of the bigger projects. Ms. Madison reported that this is why the Department has been conservative in saying that only $28M would be received for next year, although that amount will probably be exceeded for this fiscal year.
President Fillon asked if there were any categories that Ms. Madison felt the Department was under budgeted for and that might need to be looked at. Ms. Madison said that she honestly believed that getting five vehicles is not really going to do the Department much good. Ms. Madison said that it will do some good, but it would make more sense to get more than five vehicles. Ms. Madison stated that one of the major things that is really impacting the Department is just the ability for the Inspectors to get out on a daily basis. Ms. Madison said that the Inspectors are able to do it right now, but it could get to a critical shortage if the pace that the Department is losing cars continues. President Fillon asked if there were any fees or equipment that might come up where the Department would be caught in a bind because there is not enough money budgeted. Ms. Madison said that there was a question on premium pay and said that the actuals were a little bit lower, but this could not just be budgeted for actuals particularly because last fiscal year so many things were kept low. Ms. Madison said that she thought that the Department has tried to keep a cushion in some areas and stated that because professional services is just basically a few MIS things and the Code Enforcement Outreach Program if anything other came up that the Department would need professional services for, the funds would not be available.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about the five cars that were put in the City pool and asked if they were old or new cars. Ms. Madison said that it was a combination as there were some Ford Taurus CNGs, which the Department was not too sad about giving up and two new Hondas and an old 1992 vehicle. Commissioner Guinnane asked if there was some kind of requirement as to what age of a car went into the pool. Ms. Madison said that the request was for CNG vehicles because there is a mandate that a certain portion of the fleet is supposed to be CNG.
President Fillon asked if any action was necessary for this time. Secretary Ann Aherne said that the Commission needed to decide if the meeting to be held on January 22, 2002 was going to be a meeting of the entire Commission or of the Budget & Organization Committee. President Fillon said that he would like the meeting to be with the entire Commission. Secretary Aherne said that Room 408 was booked for 1:00 p.m. on January 22, 2002 and Room 416 was booked for January 29, 2002 at 1:00 p.m. should another meeting be necessary.
Commissioner Guinnane asked Director Chiu who was responsible for MIS. Director Chiu said that he was ultimately accountable for the entire Department, but the MIS Manager reports to Assistant Director Amy Lee; Ms. Lee is the Administration, Assistant Director in charge of the MIS budget. Commissioner Guinnane asked who reports to Amy Lee. Director Chiu said that Ms. Lee reports to him. Commissioner Guinnane asked if Marcus Armstrong reports to Ms. Lee. Commissioner Guinnane said that from now on he would like Marcus to report directly to Director Chiu because there have been problems with the MIS for years and stated that he was tired of having to go through all these different levels. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he wanted Marcus to report directly to Director Chiu and Director Chiu would be totally responsible for the MIS to include contracts and the whole thing. Director Chiu said that would be fine. President Fillon said that the Commission could not get too far into the MIS issues at this time.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he wanted this straightened out for the next meeting.
President Fillon said that the Commission would meet as a full Commission on Wednesday, January 22, 2002. Secretary Aherne asked if the President wanted to carry over the items that were continued. Vice-President Hood asked if it were a Special Meeting. President Fillon said that all of the items would be carried over. Secretary Aherne asked if the Commissioners could approve Items #9 and #10, which were the meeting minutes from November and December. President Fillon said that there was not a quorum at this time.
6. Update on Litigation Committee Meetings. [Commissioners Brown, Guinnane & Santos]
Continued.
7. Update on DBI Management Information Systems PTS Sub-Committee. [President Fillon & Commissioner Guinnane]
a. Discussion and possible action regarding past, current and future MIS expenditures and contracts.
Continued.
8. 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.
b. Letter dated January 7, 2003 from Deborah Muccino of the Board of Supervisors to BIC Secretary regarding current membership of the Building Inspection Commission (members appointed by the Board President) and dates of appointment.
c. Memorandum dated December 31, 2002 from Director Frank Chiu to Marisa Moret, Managing Attorney, Office of the City Attorney regarding City Attorney Reports.
d. Thank you letters received from the public commending DBI employees and Director Chiu’s response letters to the public.
Continued.
9. Review and approval of the minutes of the November 20, 2002 BIC meeting.
Continued.
10. Review and approval of the minutes of the December 18, 2002 BIC meeting.
Continued.
11. Review Commissioner’s Questions and Matters.
a. Inquiries to Staff. At this time, Commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the Commission.
b. Future Meetings/Agendas. At this time, the Commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a Special Meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Building Inspection Commission.
No discussion.
12. Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
There was no public comment.
13. Adjournment.
President Fillon asked for a motion to adjourn.
Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Brown that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 001-03
The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.
_______________________
Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary
SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS
Commissioner Guinnane asked for a breakdown of the people that qualified for the premium pay to see how it is distributed. Page 4
Commissioner Guinnane asked for a breakdown of all of the monies that are spent on MIS, regardless of how it is allocated. Commissioner Guinnane also requested a total of what goes into MIS annually. Page 5