Building Inspection Commission
BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)
Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
REGULAR MEETING
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 9:00 a.m.
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 400
Aired Live on SFGTV Channel 78
ADOPTED September 19, 2007
MINUTES
The regular meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 9:14 a.m. by President Walker.
1. |
Call to Order and Roll Call – Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified. |
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COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENTS: |
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Debra Walker, President Criss Romero, Commissioner |
Frank Lee, Vice-President |
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Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary |
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D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES: |
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Isam Hasenin, Director |
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CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE REPRESENTATIVES: |
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2. |
Action to swear in Ms. Alyce Brown for the Access Appeals Commission for the seat of a person with physical disability (reappointment), term to expire 11/01/09. [President Debra Walker] – continued from June 20, 2007 meeting.
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3. |
President’s Announcements. Director Hasenin stated that he wanted to second President Walker’s comments regarding the breakfast arranged by the Business Journal this morning, as well as some of the positive comments made by the attendees, especially the Mayor. Director Hasenin said that he wanted to commend the staff for their hard work, and said that the Department has been making a lot of changes over the last four months, and is in the process of making more.
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4. |
Director’s Report. a. Status of MIS.
Director Hasenin said that the Department is continuing the process of reviewing its MIS needs, and are waiting for an RFQ to be issued. Director Hasenin stated that the Planning Department and the Building Department have decided to go with a joint RFQ to see what is on the market in a more expeditious way. Director Hasenin said that DBI is also making improvements to the existing system to accommodate some of the immediate needs for example: Piloting and testing a modification that the MIS staff made to the Permit Tracking System (PTS) to allow for online comments. Director Hasenin stated that this would be standardizing the correction sheet that DBI issues to the customer that will accomplish two things: First it can give guidelines of corrections for staff to use while checking plans, and when corrections are made those corrections will be printed automatically and will be legible and ready to be issued to the customer. Second, when the customer comes back with those corrections, staff will be able to go online to approve each comment individually. Director Hasenin said that it would show who approved the plans on what date, and a person would always have a running list so at that any point they could go online for that project, find out what comments are, what has been signed off and what is left to be signed off. Director Hasenin stated that he could do the plan review himself if the need arises, and the goal is better customer service when it comes to those aspects. Director Hasenin stated that DBI is combining the process of how inspections are scheduled and recorded for all of the different disciplines. Director Hasenin said that in the past the Department has had different systems accommodating building, plumbing, and electrical, but said he wants to combine all of the different ways of doing business to make sure it is all consistent, uniform and efficient so the customer understands and follows the same process. Director Hasenin stated that staff is working on this right now and it should be ready in the next couple of months.
Director Hasenin said that the Department is continuing to work with Planning and Fire, and he has regular meetings with both departments. Director Hasenin stated that both departments joined him this morning for the building breakfast, and a lot of coordination is going to be coming out of the BPR effort that DBI is undertaking. Director Hasenin said that there has been an excellent level of participation from the different city agencies such as: Planning, Fire, Health, Redevelopment, the Mayor’s Office on Disabilities, Public Works, and others. Director Hasenin stated that this process is going to result in great improvements, not only to the DBI processes, but the other associated reviews and inspections that deal with the DBI processes. President Walker stated that it was great to have representatives of the building community and the public at large that are invited to the BPR meetings.
d. Update on Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety (CAPSS).
President Walker said that she was recently at a SPUR meeting and they are very excited about how the Department is moving forward, and are putting together a list of suggested participants, some of whom were involved in the first group. President Walker stated that some of the SPUR members are assessing the information they have so far for the first meeting agenda, and should be giving DBI a list of people and then the Department can send out the announcements about the date and so on. President Walker said that SPUR has done their own report along with a set of recommendations about preparation, response, and recovery that is pretty extensive. President Walker stated that SPUR has done a lot of studies and research to present the information.
Commissioner Murphy stated that there is a lot of money spent on studies by different groups, but the Department of Building Inspection needs to educate the public as far as the two and three-unit buildings, as well as single family soft stories. Commissioner Murphy said that it would be a good idea to tell people when they are doing a major remodel or just something as simple as a new kitchen or bathroom, that it is to their advantage to put in some sheer wall, additional sheet rock on the floor above their garage, and drop down some tie-down rods, at minimum cost rather than be told later on when it is more expensive. Commissioner Murphy stated that a lot of the public do not know this and he suggested that Technical Services could possibly put something on Channel 26 to show the public how to do this.
e. Update on Business Process Re-engineering. Director Hasenin said that the Department has been moving forward with the subcommittee work, and most of the subcommittees have finished putting together the benchmarking and stakeholder questions. Director Hasenin stated that staff would be visiting various cities to ask them certain questions about how they do business, what performance measures they have and so on. Director Hasenin said that next week the different subcommittees will be going through the “as is” process mapping, which means the committees would spend two to four hours of multiple sessions going through every step of how DBI does business today, starting from point A which is an application going all the way to final occupancy. Director Hasenin stated that the BPR process is basically done to identify any breakdowns in the system and to work towards correcting them. Director Hasenin said that about three weeks after the subcommittees review the results they will begin the “to be” process mapping, which is based on the results of the “as is” mapping process, and this will ideally be how business will be in the near future. Director Hasenin stated that he commends the DBI staff for spending hours per week on the BPR process while still handling the day to day business. Director Hasenin said that the Department has had great participation from industry groups, customers, stakeholders, community groups, and other city agencies and should be able to come up with real good ideas and recommendations to improve the process.
Commissioner Grubb said that the BPR process is very time consuming, but critical to the Department functioning in the future and the Commission is supportive of staff’s efforts. President Walker stated that DBI is forcing the other departments to reengineer as well, and it is good that DBI is leading this process. Vice-President Lee said that this process does not always have to be negative, and it also empowers the people that want to change things and make them better.
f. Update on Expanded Over-the Counter Plan Check Services. Director Hasenin said that it has been three or four weeks since the Department implemented the service on the fourth floor of the building, and said he believes there has been a vast improvement in operation and processing of over the counter permits. Director Hasenin stated that he wanted to commend Tony Grieco, the acting manager who led this process and helped get it off the ground. Mr. Grieco introduced himself as a Senior Building Inspector and said that it was a pleasure to report on something that is a positive activity, and covered the following points in his presentation:
Commissioner Murphy said he visited the Department and saw the fourth floor operation and was very impressed with staff starting from the Director, the managers, and Mr. Grieco. Commissioner Murphy stated that things seemed to be moving smoothly, and in the past there were bottlenecks on the first floor but now staff seems to be working together as a team. Commissioner Murphy said that he was impressed because the new process is taking some of the power away from some of the “Prima Donna” engineers who in the past held blue prints hostage for a week or two, and some may not have known how to check them.
Vice-President Lee asked if the Department was documenting feedback from users of the program. Mr. Grieco said that there are specific customer service surveys that are being captured, and they have been collected by DBI’s public information group. Mr. Grieco stated that the plan checkers have been giving the sheets to everyone soliciting their feedback, whether it is negative or positive. Commissioner Sattary asked Mr. Grieco if he had any idea what percentage of the total workload that comes to the Department is handled with this one-stop operation. Mr. Grieco stated that this question is exactly the question DBI is looking at to really identify and answer correctly. Mr. Grieco said that he did not really have that data, but he could compile it and do a breakdown of the percentage of permits.
Director Hasenin said that there are reports that contain information in terms of what is coming in over the counter, and the Department monitors the percentage of how much of the overall workload is going through the counter. Director Hasenin stated that he believes it was a weekly report and DBI processed 84% to 87%, and said that this is a tool for him to gage how much work is pushed through that process. Director Hasenin said that now that staff has two or three months “under our belt” the Department can later give a better assessment of that.
Commissioner Theriault asked if that was figured by the number of projects or value of projects. Director Hasenin said that there are different percentages, for example: One is just the number of permits, 1,000 came in this week and out of those 800 went through the over the counter operations versus the other 200 that have to be submitted and reviewed in the back room. Commissioner Grubb said that if word of this gets out he thinks DBI will probably see an increase in over the counter permit applications as once people hear that they can get a permit over the counter then they might actually apply for one.
Director Hasenin stated that he wanted to go on record to recognize and acknowledge the efforts of the DBI staff, the Intake staff, Public Services staff, Central Permit, Plan check staff, Building Inspectors, and many, many more because everyone has stepped up. Director Hasenin said that he had to change what staff does and everybody is accepting that, and there is better staff communication which will enable the Department to do a much better job overall. President Walker stated that she thinks the new process will increase the work at DBI, because the public will feel secure that they could come in to get a permit. Director Hasenin stated that his goal is to have a packet of information available for customers that explains the over the counter process, and staff can hand this out when they meet with community groups, industry groups, small business owners, and contractors. Mr. Grieco said that he observed customers going through the new process and they are served more quickly, even though some were frustrated about the new changes, yet once they understood the process they were very receptive to it.
g. Update on the overall plan for the reconfiguration of DBI including 1640, 1650 and 1660 Mission Streets. Director Hasenin stated that DBI would be working closely with other departments to get the first floor of 1640 Mission Street ready in an expeditious manner. Director Hasenin said that he hopes this will be implemented by early October, and as far the existing building at 1660 Mission Street there is a two-phase process of reconfiguring the entire building now that there are the additional floors that were vacated by the Planning Department. Director Hasenin stated that the issue is the cost and estimates that have come back from the Bureau of Architecture are in the neighborhood of $1.2 to $1.4 million per floor to reconfigure the space. Director Hasenin said that this is about a $10 million project that DBI basically does not have the money for, so he is planning on doing a phased in multi-year project. Director Hasenin stated that in the meantime the Department would utilize some of the available space on the fourth and fifth floors by moving some of the DBI staff that is working at 1650 Mission Street, so that they are closer to everybody else. Director Hasenin said that he does not anticipate seeing much improvement in terms of remodels for the permanent staff until some time next year. President Walker mentioned that DBI certainly did a good job with the Planning offices, and it is going to cost a lot to do the remodel at DBI but the Department has to plan for it and it would make a difference in staff morale.
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5. |
Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
Mr. Steve Atkinson from the firm of Luce-Forward Hamilton, & Scripps said that he was representing the State Bar of California, the owner of 180 Howard Street. Mr. Atkinson said the firm presented a letter to the Commission expressing their concerns about a proposed addition to 120 Howard Street, and in particular about the peer review process. Mr. Atkinson stated that he would like to summarize the letter, and said that a few years ago the State Bar completed a voluntary seismic upgrade of its building costing almost $300 million so they are very sensitive to seismic concerns. Mr. Atkinson said that when they heard about the plans to add four stories on top of 120 Howard Street, a 1970’s office building, without making any significant structural upgrades of that building, the State Bar was concerned. Mr. Atkinson stated that they asked their engineer, West, Janney, Elsner Associates (WJE), to take a look at those plans and were advised that WJE was very concerned about the seismic safety of that addition. Mr. Atkinson said that the State Bar appealed the CEQA exemption for 120 Howard Street to the Board of Supervisors, and withdrew that appeal only after receiving assurances from Hanson Tom at DBI that the State Bar and its engineers would be allowed to participate in the peer review process of 120 Howard. Mr. Atkinson stated that this commitment has not been met, and referred to Attachment C which is the letter recording that commitment. Mr. Atkinson said that the DBI peer review has never communicated with the State Bar and WJE about the review, and they were never allowed to participate or even advised that the peer review meetings were taking place. Mr. Atkinson stated that in fact Mr. Tom assured them that nothing was happening on peer review, and finally they found out just a couple of weeks ago that without any word to them, the peer review process had been completed and DBI was preparing to accept the peer review report. Mr. Atkinson said that he would like to draw the Commission’s attention to the attachments to their letter, and in particular Exhibit D which expresses WJE’s concerns, as presented in the letter to Mr. Tom. Mr. Atkinson stated that Exhibit E has a chronology of their efforts to participate in the process which were rejected, and based upon these issues they ask the Commission to place this issue on the agenda of their next meeting. Mr. Atkinson asked that the State Bar be given a copy of the peer review report and said that so far the officials at DBI have refused to share that report with them. Mr. Atkinson asked that WJE have an opportunity to evaluate the peer review report and present its comments to the peer review and DBI, and asked that DBI be required to provide an accurate summary of the peer review meetings that took place, who attended those meetings, and when they were held. Mr. Atkinson asked the Commission to require that the site permit for 120 Howard not be issued until the Commission has had an opportunity to review this matter. Mr. Atkinson stated in closing, that WJE knows that the representatives of the 120 Howard Street project have been telling everyone, including people at DBI, that the State Bar’s issue is not seismic but that its real issue is view blockage, but said he could assure the Commission that this is not the case. Mr. Atkinson said that the State Bar’s concerns and WJE’s concerns are real, and they are about the safety of the addition to 120 Howard and in fact the only entrance to 180 Howard is across a narrow alley. Mr. Atkinson stated that he can assure the Commission these are real seismic concerns and that need to be addressed.
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6. |
Discussion and possible action to establish goals, objectives, and evaluation criteria for the Director of Building Inspection.
Director Hasenin said that he initiated this list of evaluation criteria, and this is a unique arrangement of management and supervision that is still new to him. Director Hasenin stated that he reports directly to the Commission, not to the Mayor. Director Hasenin said that he generally knows what he needs to do because the Building Department is what he does for a living, however the Commission has seven members and everybody comes in with their own expectations, so what he wanted to do was have some clear guidelines to work on for the next year. Director Hasenin stated that he wanted to have some guidelines from all of the Commissioners so he would know what their specific priorities are for him to work on, and he does not want to go along for a year thinking he is doing a great job and then at the evaluation be told that he did not meet a certain goal or objective. Commissioner Theriault made a motion, seconded by Vice-President Lee to approve the form and criteria discussed for evaluating the Director of Building Inspection. The motion passed unanimously.
BIC RESOLUTION NO. 046-07
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7. |
CLOSED SESSION (ACTION ITEM) a. Public Comment on all matters pertaining to the Closed Session. There was no public comment.
b. Possible Action to convene a Closed Session. Vice-President Lee made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Grubb to convene in Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.
BIC RESOLUTION NO. 047-07
The Commission went into Closed Session at 10:47 a.m. c. CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957(b)(1) and the San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.10(b). d. Reconvene in Open Session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussion held in Closed Session (Administrative Code Section 67.12). The Commission reconvened in Open Session at 11:18 a.m.
President Walker announced that the Building Inspection Commission took an action in approving the Director’s appointment of Ray Lui as Deputy Director, and she congratulated him.
Commissioner Grubb made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Sattary, not to disclose any discussions held in Closed Session. BIC RESOLUTION NO. 048-07
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8. |
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. President Walker said that she and Ed Sweeney met with some members of Supervisor Alioto-Pier’s office regarding medicinal cannabis dispensaries and how it affects our Department. President Walker stated that she would like an update on this item.
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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.
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9. |
Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda. The Brown Act forbids a Commission from taking action or discussing any item not appearing on the posted agenda, including those items raised at public comment. In response to public comment the Commission is limited to:
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responding to statements made or questions posed by members of the public; or |
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requesting staff to report back on a matter at a subsequent meeting; or |
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directing staff to place the item on a future agenda. (Government Code Section 54954.2(a)) |
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10. |
Adjournment. Commissioner Grubb made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Sattary, to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 049-07
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 a.m.
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Respectfully submitted,
__________________ Sonya Harris
__________________ Ann Marie Aherne |
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SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS |
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Commissioner Murphy suggested that Technical Services Division put a demonstration on channel 26 telling homeowners how to do small remodels more efficiently and safely. – Murphy |
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President Walker asked Director Hasenin to follow up on the peer review process for 120 Howard Street and to meet with or talk to WJE She would like this item agendized for the next meeting. – Walker |
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Director Hasenin said that he and staff would give a report on 120 Howard Street at the next BIC meeting. – Hasenin |
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President Walker said that the Director’s six month evaluation would be agendized for the September meeting. – Walker |
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President Walker would like an update from DBI on the medicinal cannabis dispensaries and how it affects our Department. – Walker |
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Secretary Aherne said that the new Code would be presented by the CAC at the next BIC meeting. – Aherne |
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Secretary Aherne said that members for the sub-committees may be sworn in at the next meeting. – Aherne |
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