Department of Building Inspection

MINUTES

Secretary Aherne called attention to the fact that the Building Inspection Commission meetings were now being shown on Channel 78 for Comcast users and Channel 28 for RCN users.   Ms. Aherne said that the reason for the change was a filming conflict with a newly formed select committee of the Board of Supervisors to deal with Gang & Gun Violence.

2.    Election of BIC President and Vice-President

President Hirsch opened the floor for nominations. 

Commissioner Grubb made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Lee, nominating Commissioner Walker for President.   President Hirsch said that he would third the motion.  A roll call vote was taken and the vote was unanimous.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 004-06

Newly elected President Walker thanked Commissioner Hirsch for serving in his role as President of the BIC in a very challenging year.   Commissioner Hirsch thanked President Walker and offered his assistance in her role as President.

President Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb, for the nomination of Commissioner Lee as Vice-President.   A roll call vote was taken and the vote was unanimous.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 005-06

There was no public comment on this item.

3.    President’s Announcements.

Ex-President Hirsch had no announcements.   President Walker said that she was honored to be given such a vote of confidence and said she looked forward to working with all of the Commissioners and DBI staff.  President Walker said that she would work to have the BIC meetings take on a more civil tone.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders (RBA) spoke in response to the use of the term “civil tone” and said that civil tone is set by the ruling party at a cost to the public by curtailing free speech and public comment.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the public had a right to critique DBI staff and the Commission’s actions.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the man in the empty suit in Room 200 had curtailed free speech with his political appointments.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he hoped that the reference to civil tone was not going to be a curtailment of free speech as was attempted in the past by this Commission.

4.    Director’s Report.

• Update on Rincon Hill project.

Acting Director Lee said that she was asked to report on this project by Commissioner Hirsch and said that she was just going to give a brief report on the status of the permits at 300 Spear Street and First & Harrison Streets.   Ms. Lee stated that Supervisor Sophie Maxwell was going to have a discussion on this issue in April because of the Centennial of the 1906 earthquake and said that it would be appropriate to agendize a more lengthy discussion sometime in March. 

Ms. Lee reported that at 300 Spear Street the project was for two residential condo towers, one for 36 stories and one for 41 stories along with two other mid-size units.   Ms. Lee said that 300 Spear Street started in 2001 with many years of discussion with a Peer Review group, but an application was filed in September 2004; the foundation permit and site permit were now issued.

Ms. Lee reported that the project at First & Harrison Streets was for two residential condo towers, one for 58 stories and another for 47 stories.   Ms. Lee said that the application was filed in December 2004 and that this project was moving toward approval and permits would be issued within one or two months after some fire related issues are dealt with. 

Commissioner Hirsch said that he wanted to know how the decisions were made to allow these buildings to go beyond the 160-foot limit and what articles in the Code were used.   Ms. Lee said that the Code allowed for an alternative method in Section 104.2.8 and said that these buildings had been reviewed by national structural experts in the field of these types of concrete structures. Ms. Lee said that there were many people involved in these projects, along with the public who wanted to speak before the Commission and asked that this be agendized for a future meeting.  Commissioner Hirsch said that he would agree to have this item agendized for the second meeting in March, and said that he wanted to address concerns that had been brought up in recent newspaper articles regarding these structures. 

There was no public comment on this item. 

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

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that he had recently appeared on a television show to compare the style of the current administration to the administration of Willie Brown and the administration in Oakland.   President Walker asked that Mr. O’Donoghue keep his comments to items under the jurisdiction of the BIC.  Mr. O’Donoghue objected to the interruption saying that it was unlawful and that he should be allowed for his comments to evolve to the point of principle and conclusion.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the appointments of the current Commissioners on the BIC were politicized and said that the various seats were violated because the Commissioners serving on them were not practicing in the fields for the seats they were appointed to.  Mr. O’Donoghue referred to the politicizing of appointments to FEMA and said that the same thing was happening in San Francisco with employee morale being at an all time low.

Mr. Patrick Buscovich said that he wanted to offer congratulations and condolences to the newly elected officers.   Mr. Buscovich stated that he wanted to thank Amy Lee and Laurence Kornfield for working with a voluntary group who were working together through DBI to address the issue of retrofitting garage doors and dealing with the soft story problems in many of the buildings in San Francisco.  Mr. Buscovich stated that the first mock up was very successful and was able to carry a lateral load with the installation of blocking.  Mr. Buscovich said that the cost dealing with this solution was absolutely minimal and said that the volunteer group would be continuing to work on this with the Department.

6.    Report, discussion and possible action on the proposed budget of the Department of  Building Inspection for fiscal year 2006/2007.  [Acting Director Amy Lee & Diane Lim,   Administration and Finance]

Acting Director Lee said that this was the second reading of the budget before the BIC.   Ms. Lee said that there were not many changes from the first presentation, but said that the work orders from other departments had now been received and that amount had increased significantly.  Ms. Lee called on Ms. Lim to report on the budget.

Ms. Lim said that the work orders are for services that are provided to DBI from other City agencies.   Ms. Lim highlighted some of the work orders that had significant increases:

• Department of Telecommunications and Information Systems (DTIS)   - $442,000
  To provide project support for the Permit Tracking System as well as the Oracle licensing for the Department
• DTIS City Watch - $40,000
  Coverage through Channel 26 and 78
• Genesis - $2.5M (fringe benefits)
  Retirement pick-up by City departments

Ms. Lee said that the television coverage increase was not just for BIC meetings being televised, but said that the Department is televising public education outreach training.

Ms. Lee said that she was confident that DBI’s revenues will meet these additional costs and said that the Department will be meeting or exceeding revenue projections.   Ms. Lee stated that she would be providing updates to the Commission on the budget; after the budget is submitted to the Mayor’s Office on February 21^st it goes through several months of review by the Mayor’s Office so there will be some changes.  Ms. Lee said that the budget then goes to the Board of Supervisors and that is where most of the changes take place.  Ms. Lee said that the Department was confident that it could convince the Board of DBI’s workload and have another supportive budget season.

Commissioner Hirsch asked if there were funds in the budget for the Executive Search Firm.   Ms. Lim said that those funds are allocated to the Controller’s Office through a work order.

Mr. Ken Cleaveland said he was representing the Building Owner’s and Mangers Association (BOMA) commercial real estate property owners.   Mr. Cleaveland congratulated President Walker.  Mr. Cleaveland said that BOMA members are always willing to pay for good service and are proud to support the adequate staffing of DBI.  Mr. Cleaveland stated that BOMA was very excited about additional training, not just for staff, but most importantly for the general public.  Mr. Cleaveland said that improvements to technology were very, very important to the public and said that he was happy to see Director Lee tackling that problem. 

Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb that the budget be adopted.   A roll call vote was taken and the motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 006-06

7.    Report from the Department of Public Health regarding families in Single Room Occupancies (SROs).   [Rajiv Bhatia, Department of Public Health, DPH]

Acting Director Lee said that the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) and the Department of Public Health (DPH) had met several weeks ago to discuss important issues facing both departments with respect to SROs.   Ms. Lee said that the goal was to assess services that are particular to DBI and those particular to DPH and also those that overlap the two departments.  Ms. Lee stated that these discussions would probably lead to Housing Code Changes or changes to the Public Health Code along with cross training for the two departments.  Ms. Lee said that the two departments are working closely together to address these important issues for San Francisco and the families that live here.

President Walker thanked Mr. Bhatia for coming before the Commission.

Mr. Bhatia said that he wanted to speak about the issues that the Health Department are dealing with in terms of multi-family and residential hotel housing in general and to express some of their ideas for collaboration with DBI.   Mr. Bhatia said that DBI and DPH have a shared responsibility for ensuring housing and habitability for housing conditions in San Francisco.  Mr. Bhatia reported that many families are living in substandard housing locations that really were not designed for families and said that another problem is the enforcement treadmill.  Mr. Bhatia spoke about rodent problems in these SROs and said that DPH was interested in figuring out how to better address structural conditions that prevent the department from dealing with these types of problems in a symptomatic way.  Mr. Bhatia said that DPH does annual inspections and on average every one of these hotels has at least one violation with the average being four.  Mr. Bhatia stated that the average compliance rate is 100%, but the reoccurrence rate is also almost 100%.  Mr. Bhatia said that with a lot of these unhealthy conditions people in this type of housing are ending up in hospital rooms.  Mr. Bhatia went on to explain that DPH is adding new Code requirements to deal with such items as smoking and noise.  Mr. Bhatia spoke about structural issues and the need for adequate cooking facilities in these SROs.  Mr. Bhatia stated that DBI has some very effective enforcement mechanism and tools in its Housing Code and DPH did not have those and are now adding fines and penalties to actually mirror DBI’s Code.  Mr. Bhatia reported that the new Codes would deal with chronic violators. 

Mr. Bhatia said that sometimes it is very confusing to the public as to which department is responsible for certain conditions such as rodents and sanitation which are in both the Housing Code and the Health Code.   Mr. Bhatia spoke about difficulties with communication with the public due to language barriers and people not willing or being able to speak to City agencies.  Mr. Bhatia said that the Code examples he mentioned were introduced last year in one Ordinance and were reintroduced in January by Supervisor Mirkarimi and should be going forward to committee soon. 

Commissioner Lee asked how many SRO hotels there are in the City.   Mr. Bhatia said he did not know the total number, but said that DPH inspects approximately 160 which are the ones that are leased by the Department of Health or Department of Human Services master leased and hotels that have been reported by the SRO Task Force where there is a significant family presence.  Commissioner Grubb asked if DPH was looking to make recommendations for amendments to the Housing Code as a result of this work being done now.  Mr. Bhatia stated that those recommendations are in progress from discussions that have been held with DBI and from outreach and communication with community groups.  Mr. Bhatia said that common kitchen facilities seem to rise to the top from a community perspective as an important health and human need.  Commissioner Grubb asked if there was going to be a final report from DPH.

Ms. Lee said that there would be a joint report from both departments as there is already a good matrix set up to identify where the Codes overlap, but there is still need for improvement.   Mr. Bhatia said that there would be a presentation before the Commission on any suggested Code changes. 

President Walker thanked Mr. Bhatia and said the Commission looked forward to seeing him again as this issue progresses. 

Mr. Francisco DeCosta said that he would encourage the Commissioners to go to one of the SROs and check things out themselves.   Mr. DeCosta spoke about drug dealing that takes place outside the SROs and the despicable condition of the elevators along with a prevailing factor that adversely impacts the tenants, which are bed bugs.  Mr. DeCosta stated that there are tenants, mental patients, seniors and drug dealers that are put into these SROs and asked how the City was going to address the quality of life issue.   Mr. DeCosta said that the people who should be asked about these issues are the people living in these SROs, not the Health Department or anyone else in the City.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that he agreed with Mr. DeCosta that this is a quality of life issue and said that he thought it was being confused with structural adequacy.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that structural inadequacies such as lack of bathrooms and cooking facilities could not be addressed right now because the old buildings would be grandfathered in.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there should be more information available to the public on these issues.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is a major serious problem and this is just a band-aid on the quality of life in terms of people’s self esteem.  Mr. O’Donoghue spoke about the Civic Center Hotel and said that the City Attorney’s Office had to be forced to go to court to enforce the Plumber’s Union to do the sprinkler system in that particular hotel.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that now there is going to be an attempt to demolish that building.  Mr. O’Donoghue commended the Commission for putting this on the agenda.

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz congratulated President Walker and said that he sits on the SRO Task Force.   Mr. Karnilowitz said that he thought the Housing Inspectors did a good job and said it was not unusual for these Inspectors to write up as much as 26 pages on an inspection and there is still follow-up to be done.  Mr. Karnilowitz stated that there does need to be more collaboration between Housing and the Health Department but cautioned against creating another layer of bureaucracy.  Mr. Karnilowitz said that regarding community kitchens those involved would have to take into consideration that installation of these kitchens might take away rooms, not to mention the expense that would go into it.

President Walker said that this Committee would take in applications for these Committees that the public submits for appointment.   President Walker stated that in the past the Committee has reviewed the resumes and done either personal interviews or phone interviews to assess the applicants and then the Committee comes back to the full Commission to make recommendations as needed.  President Walker stated that there was a stack of resumes that have been waiting for some sort of action.  Secretary Aherne said that unlike the Litigation Committee, which meets once a month, once the positions are filled the Committee would not have to meet.  President Walker announced that Commissioner Romero would continue to serve on this Committee.  Commissioners Murphy and Grubb volunteered for this Committee.

Vice-President Lee made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Theriault, that Commissioners Romero, Murphy and Grubb be appointed to the Committee-Select Sub Committee.   The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 007-06

Mr. O’Donoghue of the RBA said that typically one of the problems with these Committees has been that Commissioners volunteer for them and then their attendance record is absolutely shocking and in fact, some never appear.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the BIC should establish rules and guidelines in terms of attendance.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there are a number of Housing cases that the Commission should have heard and there is a backlog. 

9.    Discussion and possible action to select Commissioner(s) to serve on the Litigation Committee.  Committee of three, currently serving are Commissioners Lee and Romero.

President Walker explained that the Litigation Committee involves more commitment and deals with enforcement cases that are being considered for submittal to the City Attorney’s Office (CAO) or are already with the CAO.   President Walker said that she would be willing to serve as the third member of this Committee.

Vice-President Lee made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb, that President Walker be appointed to the Litigation Committee.   The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 008-06

10.   Discussion and possible action to adopt revisions to the Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.  [Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the Department of the Environment (DOE)]

President Walker thanked Director Jared Blumenfeld for his attendance.   Mr. Blumenfeld said that he had come before the BIC two-months prior with this Ordinance that deals with construction and demolition of debris and how it is being recycled or not being recycled.  Mr. Blumenfeld stated that there had been three years of a public process regarding this issue and now the goal is to make sure that 65% of construction debris will be recycled out of any particular site.  Mr. Blumenfeld reported that each time a demolition permit is issued the Department of the Environment (DOE) will get a copy of it and will then work with the permitee to approve their plan.  Mr. Blumenfeld said that the only revision to the previous presentation of this Ordinance is that the DOE is promising to do this in five days or less to make sure that the process is done effectively.  Mr. Blumenfeld said that at the first reading this Ordinance was approved by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and would be going before the BOS for the second reading tomorrow.  Mr. Blumenfeld stated that the DOE was hoping to get the BIC’s approval for this change in the Ordinance. 

Vice-President Lee asked how this Ordinance would fit into Building Inspection.   Chief Building Inspector Laurence Kornfield said that DBI would have very little to do with the actual enforcement of this Ordinance other than ensuring that the Department received a letter from DOE stating that the applicant has an approved plan for recycling any materials.  Mr. Kornfield stated that DBI is authorized in this Ordinance to cooperate with DOE in enforcement issues because DBI has much greater enforcement authority with Notices of Violations and Director’s hearings. 

Vice-President Lee asked if this legislation only applied to demolition.   Mr. Blumenfeld said that was correct as all other construction and demolition activities do not trigger this particular thing and according to DBI this is for 100 or less permits a year.  Mr. Blumenfeld stated that with a demolition permit all the contractor needs to do is to come up with a plan that the DOE will monitor to ensure that there is a 65% diversion of the materials. 

Commissioner Murphy said that he understood that the Ordinance would not allow small contractors to transport their material to a facility if they have more than two tires per axle.   Mr. Blumenfeld said that there was an exemption from this Ordinance for one cubic yard of material no matter what the size of the truck. 

President Walker asked about the transportation requirement that a registered transporter must transport the material unless transported by the owner of the site and then handled through a registered facility.   Mr. Blumenfeld said that the DOE will between now and July and continuing into the future, register facilities.  Mr. Blumenfeld reported that there are about six in the Bay Area that could be registered immediately. 

Commissioner Theriault asked how the DOE arrived at the one cubic yard number, as that is substantially smaller than the usual construction debris box.   Commissioner Murphy said that he knew that there are a lot of small contractors in the business that have little pick-up trucks with the double rear axle.  Mr. Blumenfeld said that those contractors would be included in the Ordinance and would need to register every year; the owner of the company would sign an affidavit saying that they swear that all their material is being brought to a registered facility and that would cover all of the vehicles that they have.

Mr. Ken Cleaveland of BOMA said that his association had worked for three years with the DOE on this particular Ordinance and said that he thought this was a model for others in the country.   Mr. Cleaveland stated that this was logical, as instead of placing the burden on the permit holder it places it on the transporter and the recycling facility that are much better equipped to track this. Mr. Cleaveland said that he was looking forward to working with DBI on this issue.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that the Residential Builders support this legislation and said that he thought the DOE had done an excellent job on this issue.   Mr. O’Donoghue said that ironically the main defaulter in terms of breaking environmental rules is the City itself, as it does not use recycled material in its contracts.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that DPW brings in materials from Canada and said that the demolished materials from One Rincon Hill go to crushing plants outside of the City.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the City needs to start its own crushing plants, as right now everyone has to go across the Bay to the crushing plant in Oakland because the Port Department doubled the rent on the crushing plant that once existed in the City.  Mr. O’Donoghue urged Mr. Blumenfeld to work on getting plants in San Francisco.

Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Lee, to adopt revisions to the Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.  The motion carried unanimously. 

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 009 -06

11.   Discussion and possible action to adopt the Department’s Statement of Incompatible  Activities. [Acting Director Lee]

Acting Director Lee said that she had spoken about this item at the last meeting and wanted to give an update.   Ms. Lee stated that this item was going to be heard on Monday, February 13^th at 5:30 p.m. before the Ethics Commission.  Ms. Lee said that she appreciated the comments and feedback she had received from some of the Commissioners and from DBI staff.  Ms. Lee thanked Mr. Steve Nelson for assisting her with this issue as well as the Ethics Department and Sylvia at the City Attorney’s Office (CAO).

Ms. Lee said that there were some concerns from staff that given their expertise they would be prohibited from helping their family and stated that this would be unfair to staff.   Ms. Lee said that in this new version of the statement that “family member” was not very limited and said that she wanted to leave a broad definition of family member because some of the other things are restrictive.  Ms. Lee said that the Department was trying to prevent employees from drawing plans on off hours and then those plans would be submitted for review to the Department so there was the potential for conflict of interest.  Ms. Lee stated that the Department was committed to move forward ethically and to get rid of all of the negativity that has been in this Department for many years.  Ms. Lee said that DBI’s jurisdiction is City wide so that puts an additional burden on staff to be extremely cautious.  Ms. Lee said that the Ethics Commission included both DBI staff and Commissioners in this Statement of Incompatible Activities. 

President Walker said that if someone had a question about a particular activity they could check with the Acting Director or the Ethics Commission.   Ms. Lee said that she would encourage that practice for all employees and the Commissioners.  Ms. Lee said that after this is heard at the Ethics Commission on February 13^th there would probably be more changes and thereafter it does have to go through a meet and confer process with the Unions. 

Commissioner Grubb asked if there would be formal training for this statement.   Ms. Lee said that Mr. Steve Nelson would be assisting with training along with working on the Department’s statement on Code of Professional Conduct. 

Commissioner Hirsch said that he had to go before the Ethics Commission to obtain a waiver.

City Attorney Judy Boyajian said that Commissioner Hirsch already had his waiver so that would stand, but it would not go to the seat.    President Walker said that the conflict of interest issues would still hold even though Commissioner Hirsch had received a waiver. 

Ms. Lee said that this was one of many components to improve the ethics of DBI and to improve the negative press of this Department.   Ms. Lee said that this administration is committed to making sure that DBI staff behaves ethically and that there is no conflict in what is done.  Ms. Lee said that the Department also wanted to provide guidance to DBI’s constituents to help them understand and be respectful of the concerns and perception problems that exist with staff. 

Mr. Leo McFadden introduced himself as President of the Building Inspector’s Association and said that he wanted to bring some additional comments on this subject.   Mr. McFadden said that the way he reads this statement it would prohibit an employee from borrowing a tool from a neighbor or friend or from helping them on a remodel project.  Mr. McFadden said that this also prohibits a staff member from volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, Christmas in April or any of these types of projects.  Mr. McFadden requested that the Commission not adopt these in the form written because it does not protect the employees from possible disciplinary action.  Mr. McFadden gave several examples where this type of activity was outlined in the Statement of Incompatible Activities.  Ms. Lee said that the emphasis is on how specific activities would materially impair the employee’s work. 

President Walker asked if there were rules laid down where there is the ability to go and get a waiver.   Ms. Lee said that there was, but stated that one of the difficulties in the past years is that the rules have not always been clear and the practices have gone on.  Ms. Lee said that there was a rule about outside employment that most employees do not even know about that says that an employee has to get approval from the Department of Human Resources for any job outside of their current City job. 

Mr. David Herring said that he is a Housing Inspector with DBI and President of the Housing Inspector’s Association.   Mr. Herring said that it seemed to him that DBI employees would not be able to work for anybody that is regulated by the Department or has had a matter in front of the Department within the last twelve months and that is pretty much everybody in San Francisco.  Mr. Herring stated that any large business has some matter within the Department and certainly every property owner and every business owner is regulated by the Department.   Mr. Herring said that this is a pretty big thing to swallow for the employees.  Ms. Lee said that it was a requirement throughout the City that an employee has to have permission from the Department of Human Resources for any outside employment.  Mr. Herring said that the Statement of Incompatible Activities also prohibits maintaining a license in the construction trades.  Mr. Herring said that this is a license issued by the State of California and allows work anywhere in California.  Mr. Herring said that he could not see why the City of San Francisco should prevent that.  

Commissioner Lee said that if a position at DBI had requirements stated by law for such positions as licensed Architects or Engineers then the employee would have to maintain that license.   Acting Director Lee said that employees would not have to give up professional licenses, but in some cases might have to maintain them as inactive.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that this legislation would be a nightmare, would be costly and also missed the point of what it was intended to do.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this Legislation was started to stop the conflict of interest that was apparent and attempted to stop special treatment from being rendered to certain special interest groups, but instead it included employees at all levels within the Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this Ordinance would be absolutely futile and useless and would impact morale.

Mr. Garland Simpson introduced himself as the Steward for SEIU Union 790 and said that most employees probably agree with the sentiment of this document.   Mr. Simpson said unfortunately it is very broad, very sweeping and not particular in its specificity.  Mr. Simpson stated that while he would applaud the sentiment and all the work that had been put into this Legislation the Union could not support this as it stands.

Mr. Henry Karnilowitz said that he wanted to echo what everyone else was saying about this Legislation being too strict in its current form.   Mr. Karnilowitz said that right now he did not think this was a good idea. 

Acting Director Lee said that she would bring the sentiments from the public comment to the Ethics Commission on Monday. 

Commissioner Lee said that he believed that this Legislation does more than just say what is prohibited and what is allowed and said that he thought it was trying to encourage transparency.   Commissioner Lee said that employees should just let their supervisors know if they are going to be doing any volunteer work and that surely would be allowed.

Commissioner Hirsch said that he was afraid that this Legislation could fall victim to unintended consequences as certain items are much too broad and others are much too restrictive.   Commissioner Hirsch said that issues that were brought up in public comment by various speakers would cause him to look a little more closely at something he was prepared to support wholeheartedly.  Commissioner Hirsch said that he thought this Legislation should be looked at more closely before the Commission would accept it. 

Commissioner Grubb requested that any work that any staff does for a non-profit organization, for example, be explicitly exempted in this Legislation.   Commissioner Grubb said that he worked with Christmas in April and said that a lot of DBI employees came out and gave their time, expertise and skills to the City.  Commissioner Grubb said that if employees had to request permission to do something such as this it would have a chilling effect on the Department’s members to volunteer and this would be a real detriment to the City. 

Ms. Lee thanked Commissioner Grubb for his comments and said she would make that change to the Legislation.   Ms. Lee stated that this document has been a work in motion and continues to be a work in motion at every level. 

President Walker encouraged all of the Commissioners to go to the Ethic’s Commission when this document would be reviewed.

Commissioner Theriault said that he wanted to concur with Mr. McFadden regarding the prohibition on licensing and said that he thought it was unnecessary. 

Ms. Lee said that this issue came up because there was a complaint about an Electrical Inspector doing construction work on the side.   Ms. Lee said that the Department could allow for certification, but on the other end, prohibit outside activity and that should be sufficient without having to curtail the licensing.   

Commissioner Murphy said that the way this was written it was not very neighborly and said that there was more work and fine tuning that needed to be done.

Commissioner Hirsch asked if the City Attorney had reviewed this.

Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian said that she worked very closely with Ms. Lee on the initial drafts, but said that Ms. Lee had been working with the Ethics Attorneys on subsequent drafts.   Ms. Boyajian stated that she had not made any comments on the draft before the Commission. 

12.   Discussion and possible action to adopt the 2006 Cost Schedule of Building Valuation Data. [Laurence Kornfield, Chief Building Inspector, Technical Services Division]

Mr. Kornfield said that every year the Technical Services Division of the Department of Building Inspection reviews the cost schedule that is the basis for the charge of permit fees.   Mr. Kornfield said that the Department uses a uniform set of numbers so the construction of every building is given approximately the same value and tries to level the field on construction value.  Mr. Kornfield stated that every year the Department brings forward to the Commission an adjustment of its cost valuation schedule, which is through the nationally adopted Valuation Guide.  Mr. Kornfield said that the Cost Valuation Guide is adjusted annually and it has a local modifier that is applied to it.  Mr. Kornfield said that this year the overall valuation change for the whole table was 11.19%.  Mr. Kornfield reported that this valuation is based on the Marshall Swift Valuation Table and said that the numbers are basically arbitrary, but the Department tries to do this in such a way that the numbers could be justified if someone wanted to contest the valuation of their building.  Mr. Kornfield said that if the Commission were to adopt this 2006 Cost Schedule of Building Valuation the Department would send it out to the industry and the users.

There was no public comment on this item.

Commissioner Grubb made a motion, seconded by Vice-President Lee, to adopt the 2006 Cost Schedule of Building Valuation.   The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 010-06

Acting Director Lee said that sometime back in May the Commission voted to remove the halt of the CAPSS program, and said that the Department had not provided any updates as the hold up has been with the contractor on hand.

Mr. Kornfield said that because this program was new to some of the Commissioners he would give a brief history of what it is, what the Department is trying to achieve, where the program is now and what the Commission could do at this point to help.   Mr. Kornfield reported that in 1997, the Department began working on revisions to the 1998 San Francisco Building Code and engaged a number of groups including the Structural Engineers Association (SEONC) to help look at those revisions.  Mr. Kornfield said that out of that process a Blue Ribbon Committee came out with a recommendation that DBI needed to take a broader look at issues reflecting seismic safety concerns in San Francisco.  Mr. Kornfield said that based on those concerns the Department came to the Commission in 1998 with a suggestion that a program be developed in line with the Structural Engineers’ ideas.  Mr. Kornfield stated that over a period of the next few years a program was developed; the Department came back to the Commission and the first phase of the program was funded in 2000; this phase was to look at the seismic safety hazards in San Francisco and then try to figure out what could be done with them, what kind of buildings are at risk and more importantly what are the impacts of the damage to buildings.  Mr. Kornfield said that this is the key to this whole Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety (CAPSS). 

Mr. Kornfield stated that the first of three phases of the CAPSS program was developed and put out for bid.   Mr. Kornfield said that the first stage was a review of the problem and then a scoping study of what should be done in the major portions of the seismic safety program and that first phase was going to cost $50,000.  Mr. Kornfield reported that a firm called the Applied Technology Council (ATC) did the work on that phase.  Mr. Kornfield said that ATC is a State chartered non-profit corporation whose purpose is to transfer public information into public policy and was the only group that stepped forward to help do this work.

Mr. Kornfield stated that the Phase II program amounted to a two-year study to look at a number of things; the first thing it would do is look City-wide at what are the vulnerable buildings based on the current very quickly advancing state of knowledge that overlays hazardous soil types, liquefaction hazards, the uses of the buildings and special needs groups such as the elderly, families and the physically disadvantaged.   Mr. Kornfield said that this would determine what the hazard is on a building and what the impact of that hazard would be so the Department could begin to bring to the policy makers reasonable options for reinforcing or otherwise dealing with buildings that might seriously impact the City; along with the goal of reducing the impact of an earthquake and allow buildings to resume normal functioning as soon as possible.  Mr. Kornfield said that the group started this work that included looking at all these different factors, then deriving from that what are the impacts of the factors, then stepping from there to determine what are the best practices in other communities and around the world.  Mr. Kornfield gave an example and said that Berkeley has a real estate transfer tax hold back that can be applied to seismic safety and said that perhaps that would work in San Francisco.

Mr. Kornfield stated that another part of Phase II was to look at the post earthquake repair standards which are vague in the Code and try to clarify them so the Department could go to owners and tell them that their building is badly damaged and have a standard that the City wants them to go to; for instance, should it go back to original condition or should it be upgraded.   Mr. Kornfield said that it would be important to figure out how to deal with historic buildings to make sure the historic fabric of the City is addressed.

Mr. Kornfield said that the Department began, through the issuance of a contract for some $600,000 to do the technical evaluation work under the Applied Technology Council and when about ¾ of the work was done the Commission decided to suspend the contract for various reasons.   Mr. Kornfield reported that the post earthquake evaluation was never even begun. 

Mr. Kornfield stated that last November the Commission voted to restart the project.   Mr. Kornfield said that he then contacted ATC, but ATC was slow getting back to him with a response.  Mr. Kornfield said that ATC has finally responded with a proposal last week and said he sent them comments saying that the Department would like to take advantage of this hiatus of two years to incorporate into the contract things that have been learned in the meantime.  Mr. Kornfield stated that there was a meeting with ATC last Friday and people flew in from Japan and all around to meet with DBI about this.  Mr. Kornfield stated that ATC provided another contract to cover additional work in a revised version.  Mr. Kornfield said that the cost of the revised work is high; it is about $700,000 to finish the project to the standard that he has been proposing.

President Walker asked how much had already been paid to ATC.  Mr. Kornfield said that originally they were paid about $400,000 so there is $200,000 left in the original budgeted monies, which have been carried forward every year, and are still available.  Mr. Kornfield stated that it would be another $700,000, but the cost would depend on whether DBI accepts this proposal and how it is negotiated.  Acting Director Lee said that the Department has money in the Strong Motion Fund some of which is going to be spent for the Centennial outreach, but a large portion is to be used for CAPSS.  Mr. Kornfield stated that this is a lot of money, but this program is of enormous significance to the City because this work will save the City tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in earthquake damage and restoring operations after an earthquake. 

Mr. Kornfield reported that there is a separate fund in DBI, which is the Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (SMIT).   Mr. Kornfield said that for every certain type of permit that DBI issues a small percentage of the permit fee is collected and most of that is sent to the State of California to run their seismic programs and San Francisco retains a small portion of that.  Mr. Kornfield stated that this fund has accumulated over the years to $800,000 and is in the SMIT fund that needs to be released through some legislative action, which should be no problem.  Mr. Kornfield said that there is approximately $250,000 in the SMIT fund, which is available for immediate use, some of which is being used for the Centennial project.

Commissioner Hirsch said that this type of program is exactly what these funds are to be used for as the funds can only be used for strong motion education or research. 

Mr. Kornfield suggested that the Commission delegate someone to sit down with the groups involved in this CAPSS program and said that Commissioner Hirsch would be the obvious choice.   Commissioner Hirsch said that he agreed that this was a very important project and agreed to be the liaison between the Committee and the Commission. 

Commissioner Hirsch asked when there would be a firm proposal.   Mr. Kornfield said that he would proceed as quickly as possible and said that it was his understanding that this was a contract modification and not a new contract.  Mr. Kornfield stated that while this does not require approval by the Commission he would be giving the Commission updates on a regular basis. 

Mr. Kornfield said that Mr. Ken Cleaveland of BOMA had to leave the meeting, but wanted to let the Commission know that BOMA is completely behind this program; Mr. Cleaveland offered to serve on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, which previously had about 18 members to make sure all interests were represented.   Ms. Lee said that she did not think that there was any opposition to this program and said that there is widespread City-wide support not just from other agencies such as the AIA and BOMA, but from other City departments.

President Walker thanked Mr. Kornfield for his work on this project.

Mr. Patrick Buscovich said that he is the Secretary of the Blue Ribbon Committee of SEONC and a delegate to the Applied Technology Council.   Mr. Buscovich said that SEONC is a national association and has been asked by Mr. Kornfield to reassemble the team and bring in new talent for this CAPSS program.  Mr. Buscovich stated that he thought that it was critical that a member of the Commission be a direct liaison to this.  Mr. Buscovich said that there was a disconnect previously where the Commission may not have known what was going on and they reacted negatively.  Mr. Kornfield said that was why he thought it critically important that the Commission be actively involved.  Mr. Buscovich said that there are earthquake standards that are currently in the Code that are not enforceable and that section of the Code needs to be cleaned up.  Mr. Buscovich stated that through Phase I of CAPSS the City identified a lot of buildings, particularly in the Sunset and Richmond on the corners, which are neighborhood services such as grocery stores, laundromats, and restaurants that are major hazards.  Mr. Buscovich said that buildings identical to these in the Marina fell down in the last earthquake.  Mr. Buscovich said that there are buildings throughout the City that post very large risks to the socioeconomic vitality of the City and this program is going to identify and address them.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA spoke in favor of proceeding with the CAPSS program and said that previously the RBA opposed the expenditure because there was a lack of accountability in the way the money was being expended and the bills were coming in without any itemization.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that now there is talk about the Department’s professional opinions and the industry’s understanding and knowledge so the RBA supports this totally given the direction in which it is going.  Mr. O’Donoghue urged the Commission to make sure that the bills are itemized and the structure formalized properly so everyone knows who is getting the money.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he could not think of anyone better to head up this project than Laurence Kornfield along with Commissioner Hirsch and Mr. Buscovich.

14.   Discussion and possible action regarding the job description for the position of permanent DBI Director. [President Hirsch]

Commissioner Hirsch said that he had asked for this item to be on the agenda as the Commission now has a draft of the job description for a permanent Director for the Department.  Commissioner Hirsch said that many of the Commissioners were not around at the time the Executive Search Firm was tentatively engaged, but it was now necessary to review the job description and adopt it unless there are comments from Commissioners for changes or additions.

Commissioner Hirsch said that in the changes made by Mr. Ginsberg in the qualifications loosened up the experience from ten years to only six of management level experience and said he had concerns about the Director being able to obtain the certification of a Building Official within one year.   Commissioner Hirsch said that he thought the Commission should be looking for a Director who is already certified as a Building Official.  Ms. Boyajian said that State law allows that one year and said that the State law says that the person chosen would have to complete one year of verifiable experience and shall within one year thereafter obtain the certification, but said that the Commission could clearly have more restrictive requirements.   Commissioner Hirsch asked if any other Commissioners had any comments on any other requirements.

President Walker said that she did not have any more comments.

President Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Theriault, that the Commission accept the amended job description.

President Walker called for comments from the public.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that the RBA was not doing anything surreptitiously as they have been accused by Director Lee for which the RBA was never offered an apology.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he was appearing to oppose what was being done right now and said that the RBA does not do things underhanded as it takes courage to stand up against a Director or an Acting Director who is going to be confirmed ad hoc.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there needs to be an investigation done here, because the public is ill served by putting a person in charge of the Department who does not have the technical experience necessary.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the State has minimum qualifications of technical experience and said that a Director should have plan check experience, and either a degree in architectural or structural engineering.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that it was his understanding that under the State of California all of this experience is required in addition to administrative functions.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Department should have a Director who in a disaster could instantly decide whether or not someone should go into a building or not and said that the Commission was lowering the standards and playing Russian roulette with the lives of all of the citizens of this City in the event of a disaster.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this was not about politics, but about the quality of life and guaranteed protections of the health and welfare of the people of San Francisco.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the fact is that the Acting Director has bragged about her close relationship with Mr. Ginsberg, the Director of DHR.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the RBA would pursue this issue because it is the health and welfare of everyone in this City that is at issue, not the politics.  Mr. O’Donoghue compared what is happening with what happened at FEMA when the Director of FEMA impacted the quality of care of the people of New Orleans.

Commissioner Hirsch said that before the vote he wanted to know if this was passed if the Commission could officially hire the Executive Search Firm.   President Walker said that was correct.  Secretary Aherne said that she had sent the agreement received from Bob Murray & Associates to Esther Reyes at the Controller’s Office and everything should be finalized in a couple of weeks.

President Walker called for a roll call vote.   The Commissioners voted as follows:

The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 011-06  

15.  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 the BOMA San Francisco Advocate dated January 31, 2006.
• Copy of letter dated January 20, 2006 from Chief Building Inspector Carla Johnson to Mr. Andrew M. Zacks regarding 1634 Waller Street, Complaint #200564561.
• Copy of thank you letter written on behalf of DBI employee and response from Acting Director Lee.

Commissioner Theriault congratulated Mr. Wing Lau for a letter of commendation received from a member of the public.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that he wanted to comment on the response written to Mr. Zacks.   Mr. O’Donoghue said that DBI’s Executive Director was going before the Ethics Commission to talk about incompatible activities, but already there is an incompatible activity by the Director responding to Mr. Zack’s charges against her, which occurred at the Board of Permit Appeals.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he would disagree with Ms. Lee’s conclusions.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Ms. Lee’s conclusions would now make all illegal units legal.  Mr. O’Donoghue spoke about Ms. Lee’s attic and basement and the conclusion that only a basement had to be sprinklered rather than the whole building.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this was a total change and said that he would absolutely support that change because he would now love to tell all his members that an attic can now be occupied and the building does not have to be sprinklered.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this case could bring about a total Code change and said he was not against such a Code change, but was against incompatible activities.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he hoped these rules applied to everyone in the City.

Acting Director Lee said that she was glad that this letter was included on the agenda because much attention was drawn to these false allegations.   Ms. Lee said that unfortunately people tend to read one thing and exclude other things.  Ms. Lee stated that all of her records should be looked at together: the Sanborn map, tenant testimony, and permit records in 1986 and 1989 to clarify permit records.  Ms. Lee said that she did not want things to be misconstrued and stated that she wanted everyone to be aware that she did win her appeal.  Ms. Lee said that there was a lot of allegations that she was doing something underhanded and it was a personal attack to her home and continues to be as she and her family live in a construction project.  Ms. Lee said that it was really troublesome at this point and said that she knew staff felt troubled by what happened with this permit appeal. 

Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian said that she wanted to point out that Ms. Lee had nothing to do with this letter as it was written by Carla Johnson.   Ms. Boyajian stated that Carla Johnson and Wing Lau were the people that she worked with on this whole appeal and Ms. Lee was walled off from any discussions or decisions about it.

President Walker thanked Ms. Boyajian for her clarification.

Ms. Carla Johnson said that she is a Chief Building Inspector in the Building Inspection Division and said that she was the person who wrote and signed the letter in question.   Ms. Johnson stated that all letters that come out of DBI have the Director’s name over the name of the person who wrote the letter.  Ms. Johnson said that she takes full responsibility for this letter.

President Walker thanked Ms. Johnson and said that she was glad this saga was over.

16.  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 Hirsch asked about available SMIT funds to offer to the Mayor’s Office to celebrate the 1906 Earthquake Centennial.   Ms. Lee said that she was in contact with the Mayor’s Office and DBI is going to make funds available for its portion of the participation in the Centennial.  Commissioner Hirsch stated that he was sure the Mayor’s Office would be very appreciative of any funds from DBI. 

Secretary Aherne advised that there was no room available to have a Special Meeting on February 27^th so the next regular meeting would take place on March 6, 2006.  Commissioner Hirsch said that he would not be present at the March 6, 2006 meeting.  Secretary Aherne said that since there were two appeals to be heard at that meeting she would let the appellant know in case they might want to reschedule. 

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

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the RBA said that good government starts at the top and starts with avoiding conflict of interest.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that good government starts with ensuring that people in charge of departments do not get special treatment.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that people in charge of this Department have for their friends and themselves been able to avoid going to Planning Commission hearings for the scrutiny of permits.  Mr. O’Donoghue mentioned a case at Golden Gate and also Lyons Street where the permits never went for review before the Planning Commission.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that good government means that there should not be conflict of interest among Commissioners and said that the RBA would be attempting to put on the November ballot an issue in which Commissioners who have a conflict of interest should not be allowed to serve on Commissions unless it is specified in the Charter.  Mr. O’Donoghue referred to Unions and said that Unions are a special interest group much like residential builders and as a special interest group residential builders were given the right to have a representative on the Commission.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this went before the voters and said that any member from the Union should have the same obligations as a special interest group to get the right of the public before they are allowed to serve.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Larry Mazzola is serving on the Airport Commission as he is entitled to do as a private entity, but he is not serving the public very well because it is to his interest to see that his members get the highest wages in the City.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this was a clear conflict of interest.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that there is the same conflict with Commissioner Romero as he serves representing tenants and the Housing Inspectors and when there is a conflict between the Housing Inspectors and the public Commissioner Romero would vote as he is paid to vote, which is for the people that employ him.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that these were the incompatible activities that need to be cleaned up if there is going to be clean government.

18.   Adjournment.

Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Vice-President Lee that the meeting be adjourned.  The motion carried unanimously.

RESOLUTION NO. BIC 012-06

The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m.