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1.
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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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Alfonso Fillon, President
Bobbie Sue Hood, Vice-President
Roy Guinnane, Commissioner
Matt Brown, Commissioner
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Denise D’Anne, Commissioner
Esther Marks, Commissioner
Rodrigo Santos, Commissioner
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Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary, Excused
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D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:
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Frank Y. Chiu, Director
Amy Lee, Assistant Director
Ken Harrington, Special Assistant to the Director
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Sonya Harris, Secretary
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2.
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President’s Announcements.
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President Fillon had no announcements.
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3.
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Director’s Reports. [Director Chiu]
Director Chiu wished the Commission a Happy New Year.
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a.
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Report on requirements of Efficiency Plans pursuant to the San Francisco Administrative Code, Chapter 88, Performance and Review Ordinance of 1999.
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Director Chiu said that at a past meeting he had informed the Commission that the Department had submitted an Efficiency Plan to the Board of Supervisors on October 31, 2003. Director Chiu stated that because the Department does an annual Efficiency Plan the Commission and the Department need to set aside a separate meeting to go over some goals and performance measurers that could be implemented for this coming year. Director Chiu said that this should be a future agenda item and asked that the Commission use the current Efficiency Plan as a guideline. There were no comments from the Commission or the public.
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b.
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Status of on-line permit tracking and complaint tracking systems.
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Director Chiu said that he was very happy to report that DBI is getting very close to launching an on-line permitting and complaint tracking system. Director Chiu said that that Management was now testing the system to make sure that it works. Director Chiu walked the Commissioners through the on-line service as outlined in their handouts stating that the public could check what permits were issued or what the status of a permit was by entering the property address. Director Chiu stated that this system would allow access to any complaints against the property. Director Chiu said that the address searched would have to be an official or authorized address, and would let the searcher know when the application was filed and show a detailed report of the project and the timeline for all of the stations required. Director Chiu stated the search would show what all of the different divisions stand for so that the customer could directly call the station where the plans were being held. Director Chiu said that currently the Customer Services Division is handling 65 – 70% of all of the calls relating to permit status and by launching this service a lot of the phone requests would be eliminated because anybody from home or office could do the search on a computer. Director Chiu said that this information would be available 24/7 and the customer would not have to wait for the office to be open. Director Chiu stated that the public would soon be able to check complaints in the same manner. Director Chiu said that both systems would be launched at the same time. Commissioner Santos said that this would be a great asset to customer service and was a very impressive undertaking. Commissioner Santos asked if a project was stuck in Planning if the customer would have the name of the planner checking the permit. Director Chiu said that it was still being debated as to whether the individual’s phone number would be listed or if it would just be the division’s number. Commissioner Santos said that the Plan Checker might be bombarded with calls. Director Chiu said that this is something that needs to be worked out and stated that he had not yet met with Planning to see how they view this. Director Chiu said that this system was not only going to track DBI’s status, but would track the entire City permit review agency, for example DPW, the Fire Department, Planning and any other agency involved.
Commissioner D’Anne asked if all of this information was already input or would staff have to do it. Director Chiu said that this information has been in place for many years and this is just a new enhancement for the customer. Director Chiu stated that the customer would not have to stand in line or call, but would be able to do this from home on their computers.
President Fillon asked if there was a function for searching for projects in one’s neighborhood or would a person need the exact address. Director Chiu answered that right now the address would be needed, but it would include any permit filed with DBI. Director Chiu said that in the future the Department would like to have inspection tracking as well, but right now the bulk of the work has been focused on this permit and complaint tracking system. Director Chiu said that it is his goal to one day be able to schedule an inspection on-line. President Fillon asked when this would be implemented. Director Chiu stated that the Department is almost ready except for the telephone number issue that he spoke about and that is only because he has not had the opportunity to talk to those other agencies that are involved to get their approval for what phone numbers will be listed. Director Chiu said that this should be launched within four to six weeks.
Commissioner Santos asked if a project were on hold because of plan check comments would it show on the system why the project was on hold. Director Chiu said there would be a brief description, but a customer would still have to call for the corrections. Director Chiu stated that he would hope that when a Plan Checker puts the pans on hold and starts writing the correction notice they would put a date as to when it was prepared or when it was sent out to the designer.
Mr. John Carney said that he thought the Department was making tremendous progress, but said that there is still a tremendous gap in the whole system because if he calls up a Building Inspector with a complaint about a certain project such as 870 Kansas, he never hears back from the Inspector. Mr. Carney said that the Inspector or whoever receives a complaint should assign it a number so the caller or the public can know what the action is. Mr. Carney said that a later agenda item in correspondence is about someone who complains that they have called the Department eleven times and have never gotten an answer back. Mr. Carney said that he did not even know that this system existed and said that the Inspector should call back.
There was no further public comment.
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c.
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Update on televising BIC meetings
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Director Chiu said that he wanted to let the Commission know the status of getting the BIC meetings televised. Director Chiu said that it is not easy to coordinate with City Hall to get a room, but it looked like the Commission now has Room 400 for meetings on the first and third Mondays of the month. Director Chiu stated that the room would need to be vacated by 12:00 noon so the meetings would have to be started by 9:00 a.m. Director Chiu said that at the next meeting action would need to be taken to make this an action item to change the current meeting day of Wednesday to Mondays. President Fillon asked if this timeline would be acceptable to all of the Commissioners. Vice-President Hood asked if anyone would show up because very often people need to get their businesses started on Monday mornings. Vice-President Hood said that if that were the only time that was available she would be fine with it and the reason this came up is because the Commission felt that DBI and the BIC were being misrepresented in the press. Vice-President Hood stated that she thought the Commission does a lot of good stuff and the Department does a lot of good things and the Commission wanted the public to be aware of that. Vice-President Hood asked when the meeting would be shown on television. Secretary Aherne said that the meeting would be live, but then it would be up to SFGTV as to when the meeting would be shown again throughout the week. Secretary Aherne said that the video would be archived and the public could go on-line and look at any particular agenda item that they were interested in viewing. President Fillon asked when this could begin. Secretary Aherne said that she had asked for this to begin with the first meeting in February. President Fillon said that the playback schedule would be important. Commissioner D’Anne asked if there were any slots available in the evening. Secretary Aherne said that she asked for any day or any time that was available and this was the only option given because there are only two rooms available for broadcasting.
Vice-President Hood asked about the cost. Director Chiu said that the estimated cost was $25,000 for the twenty-four meetings that the Commission usually holds. Director Chiu said that he would like to move forward with this day and time. The Commission discussed getting a more convenient time.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that it was absolutely mandatory that this Commission gets on TV and if Mondays at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. was the only time available that would be fine. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that there would be no problem with the repeat time because there is a lot of dead time on the broadcasting. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the BIC should be on TV right now because of such things as the scurrilous attack by the Mayor elect, who will fast become the Mayor eject, to the Chronicle this morning, which was a disgrace. Mr. O’Donoghue said that if that was going to be the policy of the incoming Administration are not giving decorum or adhering to protocol by coming before the Commission or even talking to the staff or the Director before going public and doing a trial by press then this Board is very ill for the coming four years. Mr. O’Donoghue recommended that people go to the Sentinel because it was very propitious and properly and credibly fortuitous that he had already done a satire on the Jonathon Swift style on the Chronicle and the incoming Mayor elect. Mr. O’Donoghue said that obviously the Department is at war, as it has been from the very beginning with the Chamber of Commerce who never have accepted this Commission or the fact that the voters put this Commission in. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this is why the Commission needs to get on TV and said that he would welcome what is occurring because of this attack and the opportunity to use Channel 26, as he will use others, to bring this Mayor elect and his staff and all his puppets along to put forward and find this so called corruption that is ensuing in this Department. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this is why it is very important that this Commission move post haste and would recommend that the BIC take whatever time is available because the RBA has already requested through the Board of Supervisors full hearings on all of the allegations contained in the press this morning. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this has never happened before and said that it was fortunate to have Matt Gonzalez who has been asked to preside over those hearings, where it will be put into the record and finally laid to rest that DBI is one of the best run Departments. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he also wanted to go into the so called internal people who have information of dereliction of duty, cover-ups by them using the whistleblower’s protection act to hide their nefarious and illegal actions. Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is the opportunity with this coming administration to begin it and fortunately there is the time to do it for the next several years. Mr. O’Donoghue thanked the Commission.
Mr. John Carney said that afternoons would be so much better for business people even if the meetings started at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Mr. Carney suggested that if the BIC held evening meetings there would be a lot more people present. Vice-President Hood said that evening meetings were tried once and nobody came. Mr. Carney said that it would depend on an exciting issue for attendance. President Fillon said that the Monday morning meetings would be running until noon so Mr. Carney could come in later in the morning. Vice-President Hood said that she was thrilled to hear that the meetings would be on the web and people could review the agenda item that they cared about. Mr. Carney said that he thought that going on T.V. was the way to go.
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4.
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Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission’s jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda
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Mr. Robert Pender said that he read a speech before the Board of Supervisors yesterday afternoon and then yesterday evening read it before the San Francisco Rent Board. Mr. Pender stated he is the Vice-President of the Park Merced Resident’s Organization (PRO), the oldest, and continuous renter’s organization in San Francisco. Mr. Pender said that he was one of the original members of PRO when it was born on March 4, 1974. Mr. Pender said that he had served as a Board of Director and treasurer. Mr. Pender reported that the PRO is supported entirely by member’s dues and has never been funded by any other governmental or non-governmental agency, a fact of which he is very proud. Mr. Pender went on to say that he was running as a candidate for the Democratic Central Committee in the twelfth Assembly District on the west side of town. Mr. Pender asked for the Commissioner’s individual support.
Mr. Pender said that he was present for a second reason and stated that Park Merced had a new landlord who was intimidating the tenants by giving out individual leases asking the tenants to sign an affidavit that the apartments do not have green mold or dry rot. Mr. Pender said that he felt that the landlord’s thought that this would get them off the hook. President Fillon asked Mr. Pender to wrap up his comments. Mr. Pender said that he wanted it on the record that the tenants are asking to sign something that is not true.
Commissioner Guinnane asked if Mr. Pender could get a copy of what the landlord is asking the tenants to sign and give it to the Commission Secretary.
Commissioner D’Anne said that she had a problem with the Commission being subjected to political pitches and said that she thought it would be a bad precedent to set to allow the public to come in and ask the Commission to endorse any candidate. Commissioner D’Anne stated that she did not think this was a proper venue for that. Vice-President Hood said that she had the same feeling. President Fillon said that this had never happened before.
Mr. John Carney said that he agreed with the Commissioner’s comments about the political issue and said that he felt that this portion should be struck from the minutes.
Mr. Carney said that it has happened to him twice that when the issue of a building permit for construction comes up there are sometimes two sets of drawings and the two sets of drawings are not the same, but are both approved for construction. Mr. Carney sad that there should be only one set of drawings when the permit is finally approved for the first time and there could be amendments to it. Mr. Carney said that his second comment was that for a small house a site permit is approved and then it is stamped “not to be used for construction”. Mr. Carney said that he has seen people start construction before they get a complete package of drawings from the different departments such as electrical and plumbing and so this means that the Inspectors are allowing construction to begin before there is a complete package of drawings. Mr. Carney said that he thought that this should be enforced.
Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Carney talks about construction and then gets into electrical and plumbing and Commissioner Guinnane said that he did not believe that there were drawings required to get into electrical and plumbing. Commissioner Guinnane said that if there is a building to alter a building, it comes up in a building permit and then the contractor comes along and gets a permit later and there are no drawings. Commissioner Guinnane said the only other drawing that would be submitted would be for Fire laying out dry standpipes or a sprinkler system and that would be when the building is standing. Mr. Carney said that he has found that there is a stamp on the actual permit when it is issued that it is a site drawing and that construction cannot start, but it doesn’t even list why construction cannot start. Commissioner Guinnane said if the project cannot be started it is because the drawing is not approved. Mr. Carney said that it states that it is approved. Vice-President Hood said that it is only approved by the Planning Department. Mr. Carney said that it is approved by DBI. Vice-President Hood asked for specific addresses. Mr. Carney stated that one is 879 Rhode Island Street. Vice-President Hood stated that the Commission could not check into sweeping statements, but needed specifics and asked that Mr. Carney give the addresses to the Secretary or the Director to be researched. Mr. Carney said that the stamps get all lost on the top of the forms.
President Fillon said that Deputy Director Hutchinson had some comments. Mr. Hutchinson said that some of the rules in DBI are a result of the neighbors wanting to have input into the projects. Mr. Hutchinson said that the first part of the public member’s complaint is that there are multiple sets of drawings or multiple approved drawings and stated that he did not think that this was the fact. Mr. Hutchinson said that someone files for a permit and the Department of City Planning sends a reduced set of drawings to the neighbors; if the neighbors are not vigilant when the project sponsor actually files his building permit, the concerned parties should come into the Department to see if it remained the same. Mr. Hutchinson stated that when a neighbor gets another note saying that the permit is ready to be issued it should be looked at again because somebody within that process time might have alter the drawing by submitting a revision which is perfectly legal.
Mr. Hutchinson said that the other part of Mr. Carney’s complaint was that the Inspectors are allowing contractors to begin work on site permits; the Inspectors are not allowing people to start on site permits, but people are starting on site permits on their own. Mr. Hutchinson said that a public member should call the Department so an Inspector can go out and stop construction so there is no problem.
Commissioner Guinnane said it was his understanding that when the permit is issued there is one final set of drawings that is stamped approved and there are not multiple sets of drawings stamped approved. Mr. Hutchinson said that was correct. Director Chiu said that he thought that this gentleman was confused about the site permit process. Director Chiu said that the site permit was not for construction, but was reviewed by DBI and Planning to make sure what is going to be built. Director Chiu said that this is why there is a site permit plan and an addendum plan. Director Chiu said that the addendum plan allows the contractor to begin construction and perhaps Mr. Carney was confused. Director Chiu said that there could be five or six addendums, but they would be numbered. Vice-President Hood said that if Mr. Carney thought there was a violation he should call the Building Department immediately and an Inspector will be sent out. Mr. Carney gave another address of 829 DeHaro Street.
Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders Association (RBA) said that about two months ago his organization declared a boycott on the Chronicle and does not give interviews. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that his organization now has a committee together to start their own publication and said that, like anything the organization has started, they know it will take a few years before it comes to fruition, but it will come in as a major publication because that aspect of business they are familiar with. Mr. O’Donoghue said he wanted to talk about the fact that the RBA welcomes a monitor coming in to look at DBI and said that he would presume that out of the $6M or more that the Mayor elect took to elect himself to office, the Mayor will provide the financing for this, but stated that it would not come out of fees to DBI because the builders would strongly object to that. Mr. O’Donoghue said along that line the RBA wanted this Commission to direct DBI staff to cooperate, especially with the Hamman project and stated that the RBA had asked Matt Gonzalez to schedule that for a hearing because they feel that some of the issues were put under the rug at the Board of Permit Appeals. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he did not come into that process until his name had been used, which was August after a complaint had already been filed in June by another contractor. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he wanted this Commission to get together to look into the time it takes to get a new building approved versus the other 94% because the Department has done a terrible public relations job on these issues which have been outstanding for a number of years and the information needs to be ready for the Board and this monitor. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this would show that the Residential Builder’s projects are the last to get approved at DBI and the RBA does only 300 permits out of approximately 55,000 a year. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the RBA is a totally different kind of operation and does not have any influence. Mr. O’Donoghue asked that the Commission get information about permits submitted by project expediters like Pat Buscovich because those need to be monitored to find out about the projects for the downtown people such as BOMA because those are the projects that are getting preferential treatment, if any, over the RBA projects and of course the small projects by the public get favorable treatment over everyone and that is the way it should be. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the RBA is looking forward to this monitor and the Grand Jury and that is why they are looking forward to Channel 26 broadcasting these meetings and putting all of these issues out to the public. Mr. O’Donoghue said that he was also asking the Mayor elect and would subpoena him, if that was possible, to tell at what time and what date it was when he found someone jumping the line at DBI and what was that persons name. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that since the allegation was made he wanted this brought forward. Mr. O’Donoghue said that this would clear the records once and for all to show that this was the best run Department in the City with a very capable Commission.
Commissioner D’Anne said that she had a problem with the idea of a monitor and asked how long the Commission could expect a monitor to be assigned to DBI. President Fillon stated that neither DBI nor the BIC had received any notification or explanation, as of yet and the only information is in the Chronicle article that came out today. Commissioner D’Anne said that she did not like the idea of a monitor because it showed a lack of trust in the staff of the Department and would affect the morale of the employees. Commissioner D’Anne stated that there must be a better way to do this than to accept this police state kind of thing coming to the look over the Department’s shoulder. Vice-President Hood said that she would like to know a lot more about what was being proposed and stated that in the past one of the main problems with the Grand Jury reports was that the persons that were sent in recommended a process for tracking permits that would have greatly slowed down the number of permits that could have been processed at any one time. Vice-President Hood said that there was a lack of understanding of how the Department works and said that she thought the person who would be suited to track these allegations would be somebody who was extremely skillful in computer analysis because it is in the records, but just needs to have someone pull it out and look at it. Vice-President Hood said that she had never seen anyone get in front of anyone else in line and said that she had been working in San Francisco for a very long time. Vice-President Hood stated that sometimes it could appear that way to someone because the customer might have already been to a Plan Checker at the counter who sent the customer for some further information and they come back to that Plan Checker without having to wait in line a second time. Commissioner D’Anne said that if people have complaints they should bring it to the source within the Department and then it could be checked out. Vice-President Hood said that what really disturbs her about these allegations is that in no instance has anyone ever cited names and yet there are all these allegations made without any information. Vice-President Hood said that in the particular instance that was mentioned in the Chronicle it would have been very easy to find out who the person was who was getting ahead in line and if there was any reason why that occurred. President Fillon asked the Commission to move on.
At this time the Commission took a break.
The Commission reconvened at 2:35 p.m.
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5.
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Status of list on Incompatible/Prohibited Activities/Ethics Policy and discussion of Proposition E. [Amy Lee and Ken Harrington]
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Assistant Director Amy Lee said that one of the most important items to move forward with for this Department is the Code of Professional Conduct and stated that she wanted to give the Commission on update on the recently passed Proposition E. Ms. Lee said that two years ago, along with the Controller’s Office the Department drafted a Code of Professional Conduct, which is a working document. Ms. Lee said that Management has been working with staff to make changes, however the recent passage of Proposition E requires the Department to submit a list of incompatible activities by August of 2004. Ms. Lee said that some of the things that are being discussed now are outside employment and property ownership. Ms. Lee stated that with the current City system there is a big loophole that requires disclosure of outside employment; and it prohibits outside employment absent the approval of the to the Civil Service Commission, but it does not address working as a contractor or a consultant. Ms. Lee stated that this Department, separate from what the City is doing, wants to close that loophole. Ms. Lee said that DBI believes that, if not all out prohibition of outside employment, at minimum disclosure is required. Ms. Lee said that DBI is currently thinking about requiring that all employees forego their contractor’s licenses if they are working at DBI and, in addition to that, if they are getting any kind of outside benefit or outside money for any services they have done then it would be disclosed in order to determine whether it is a conflict of interest. Ms. Lee stated that this might include any type of employment because if an employee is working at DBI for forty hours and somewhere else for forty hours one of those jobs is going to suffer. Ms. Lee said that the Department is looking at any kind of conflict. Ms. Lee said that there has been some discussion about property ownership and whether it is appropriate to do work on property that the employee owns. The Department, at minimum believes that there should be disclosure because then there is nothing to hide.
Commissioner Guinnane said that on the property ownership and talking about disclosure it should cover LLCs and corporations. Commissioner Guinnane said that a person could have everything under another name and not have to disclose it. Ms. Lee said that LLCs are reported on the Conflict of Interest forms. Commissioner Guinnane said that going back to the employment issues and talking about foregoing someone’s license the thing that would resolve that issue would be for an employee to put their license on an inactive status. Commissioner Guinnane asked if someone had a relative who has a license and the employee does consulting for that relative who is paid $300,000 for the work, but the employee gets no compensation, if there was anything illegal about that. Ms. Lee said that these are the kinds of situations that are being reviewed. Vice-President Hood said that she did not believe that someone would have to put their license on an inactive status if they were doing work outside the jurisdiction of San Francisco. President Fillon said that it would depend on what kind of license it would be because with something such as an MIS person it could make a great deal of difference, but with permits or construction it would not be the same and it would not make a difference to him as long as the employee is at work doing what they are supposed to be doing.
Ms. Lee said that the guidelines that are being proposed are not going to catch every single item or situation, but the main idea is full disclosure in all cases.
Ms. Lee said that the Department is also addressing the perception of preferential treatment and by making some of these improvements by publishing lists of what is or what is not preferential treatment it would help both employees and the public. Ms. Lee said that everyone is asking the Department for better customer service, but if in providing that good customer service is the Department providing preferential treatment, and this is an attempt to address this very controversial issue. Ms. Lee said that some employees are afraid to do their jobs right now in case it would be perceived as giving preferential service. President Fillon said that customer service is definitely very important.
Vice-President Hood said that she thought it was a good idea to have registration of Plan Expediters because if there is a lobbyist they have to register if they are making more than $15,000 and must list all of their clients. Vice-President Hood said that expediters are perceived by the public as getting extra favors when in her experience the expediter has an outside consultant check the drawings prior to handing them into the City and make the corrections that would slow down the process for approval. Vice-President Hood said that she did not think that expediters were doing anything unethical or wrong, but thought that they are just good at what they do. President Fillon said that anyone acting as an agent for a client could be lumped into the description of an expediter and said that he thought it would be better to focus on the process. Vice-President Hood said she was not talking about an architect or an engineer who is actually working on the job, but just someone whose sole purpose is to get the permit issued.
President Fillon said that he thought that a list for employees is a good idea, but workshops about what is appropriate behavior and what is not would be very beneficial. Ms. Lee said that is why she is bringing this item to the Commission and said that is an ongoing process and Management would continue to work with staff.
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6.
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Discussion and possible action to approve AB-057, Local Equivalency for Approval of Roof Hatches in Lieu of Stairway Penthouses in Designated Buildings. [Laurence Kornfield]
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Mr. Kornfield said that he was before the Commission to get two Administrative Bulletins approved by the BIC, the first being AB-057 dealing with the use of roof hatches in lieu of stairways to the roof. Mr. Kornfield said that he believed that Mr. Alan Tokugawa made a presentation on this item to the Commission last October and he was told to proceed with this final draft. Mr. Kornfield stated that the only significant issue that he wanted to raise was that the Fire Department has made it clear that it does not wish to adhere to this bulletin for buildings that would be under their jurisdiction, which would be apartment buildings, or high-rise buildings. Mr. Kornfield said that Administrative Bulletin would apply to specifically to buildings under DBI’s jurisdiction. Mr. Kornfield stated that the Fire Department said they would consider this under a case-by-case basis, but have not defined what their criteria might be.
Commissioner Guinnane asked what was under the Building Department’s jurisdiction. Mr. Kornfield said that it was one and two-family buildings and low-rise commercial buildings, which would be less than 75ft from the ground to the highest level. Mr. Kornfield said that a three-unit building would be under the Fire Department’s jurisdiction and would be considered on a case-by-case basis. There was much discussion about hatches and Vice-President Hood said that she had used hatches on many projects since 1977 and had done at least twenty projects where this was done to protect the view of the uphill neighbors. Vice-President Hood said she could not understand the Fire Department’s resistance to using the roof hatches. President Fillon agreed. The Commission asked Mr. Kornfield to go back to the Fire Department and the Code Advisory Committee one more time to see if this bulletin could be changed. Mr. Kornfield explained that this had already gone to the Code Advisory Committee and stated that he had taken some of the committee members to look at roof hatches along with the Fire Department. Mr. Kornfield agreed to talk with the Fire Department and get back to the Commission. It was decided not to vote on this issue at this time.
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7.
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Discussion and possible action to approve AB-060, Information Technology Rooms defined and requirements. [Laurence Kornfield]
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Mr. Laurence Kornfield, Chief Building Inspector of Technical Services stated that this item was to correct an anomaly where the electrical code actually addresses occupancy separations which are normally covered in the Building Code so DBI is attempting to let designers and builders understand what these requirements are in the electrical code sections where information technology is talked about. Mr. Kornfield said that TSD has worked extensively with the Fire Department and David Green in the Electrical Department. Mr. David Green explained that this Administrative Bulletin is an attempt to educate designers downtown as to what they can and cannot do as far as computer rooms are concerned when it comes to wiring. President Fillon asked about mechanical rooms and disabled access. Mr. Neil Friedman said that if someone is calling a room a mechanical room it would be subject to certain conditions and there would be a possibility that it would have to be disability accessible. Mr. Friedman said that rooms are usually called a mechanical room if they have to assessed by a ladder or a catwalk. Vice-President Hood said that she did just not know enough about the electrical code. Mr. Green said that in the past computers were larger, used more energy and the materials that were used had a greater risk for fire, but now materials have much more fire resistance and this is a historical code that has been pretty much eliminated by modern technology and materials. Mr. Green stated that the one thing that hasn’t changed is that very large computer rooms still use power cords, but smaller rooms would not trigger these codes. Mr. Green said that this would eliminate power cords being draped all over racks that would be a danger for fire. Mr. Green said that this would address the choice of wiring and would not allow people to daisy chain power cords. Mr. Green said that this is to address very large equipment rooms.
Vice-President Hood asked how this would work in a private home. Mr. Kornfield said that it would allow the homeowner to have a six-foot extension cord. Director Chiu said that this was not just for computers, but would apply to any appliances in a home, but this Administrative Code was written mainly to address small businesses and the downtown people prompted this.
Mr. Kornfield said that BOMA said that they would distribute this to their membership to get the word out.
Commissioner Santos made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Guinnane to adopt AB-060.
The Commissioner voted as follows:
Commissioner Santos Yes
President Fillon Yes
Vice-President Hood No
Commissioner D’Anne Yes
Commissioner Guinnane Yes
The motion carried on a vote of four to one.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 047-03
President Fillon thanked DBI staff for all of their work on this Administrative Bulletin.
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8.
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Discussion and possible action to utilize previously approved capital funds to improve the permit intake center at 1660 Mission Street. [Director Chiu and Taras Madison]
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Director Chiu said that he had spoken before the Commission about the idea of having only one single intake station and combining the first and second floors some time last year. Director Chiu stated that this was a draft plan before the Commission, but it was only a draft and in no way was it finalized. Director Chiu said that the reason this was in front of the Commission today was because the Department needed to submit a request for these capital funds to the budget committee by January 16th and this was the reason for rushing this through. Director Chiu said that he was just asking the Commission to earmark these funds today. Vice-President Hood said that she had several questions about the plan. Director Chiu said that the plans were a very rough draft and apologized for putting staff in a situation where the draft was rushed. Vice-President Hood asked that the draft be marked “conceptual draft” so as not to be misleading. Director Chiu said that he was just asking for the funds to be set aside for this project.
Commissioner Guinnane asked who drew the plans. Mr. Neil Friedman said that he had drawn the plans with very little time and it was just a gross conceptualization to demonstrate that floor space is available to bring the services from second floor down to the first floor. Mr. Friedman stated that he thought that this plan would address a lot of the issues raised by the Grand Jury report last year. Vice-President Hood asked who drew the plans. Mr. Friedman said that he drew the plans, and stated that he is a Senior Building Inspector with a background in architecture. Mr. Friedman stated that he had a Master’s Degree. Vice-President Hood said that she had several questions. Director Chiu said that this would eliminate a lot of confusion because a customer has to go back and forth from the first floor to the second floor and this would eliminate any changes being made to the plans during that time. Director Chiu said that he also wanted to implement the single permit intake and this would accommodate that. Director Chiu said that all plan checking would take place on one floor.
Director Chiu thanked Mr. Friedman for his work and apologized that Mr. Friedman did not have more time to work on this plan, but again the goal was just to allocate the money.
Commissioner Guinnane made a motion to allocate the money ($2M) for remodeling the first and second floor, but his concern was that the Department would spend $1.6M for an architectural plan as it did with the expansion of 1660 Mission and no work was done; and said that when the money is secured he would like to see a proper plan in place and monitor how the $2M is being spent. Director Chiu said that the Department would be hiring architects from Public Works and at that time there would be a detailed breakdown of how the $2M is going to be spent.
President Fillon said that he would like to see an exit onto Otis Street. Mr. Friedman said that he has been working with disabled access for the past seven years and disabled access issues would be included in the plan. Mr. Friedman said that this current draft plan was very, very preliminary.
Commissioner Santos seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 048-03
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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..
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Public Comment on all matters pertaining to the Closed Session.
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The BOMA San Francisco ADVOCATE dated December 30, 2003, Volume 9, Number 11.
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Correspondence between Kenneth Kalani and Steven R. Currier and Chief Electrical Inspector Michael Hennessy regarding 116 Drake Street.
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Correspondence between Mr. John M. Kelly and Deputy Director Jim Hutchinson regarding 201 8th Street and 525 5th Street.
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Correspondence between City Administrator William Lee and DBI personnel regarding an anonymous complaint on property located at 3639 Taraval Street.
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Correspondence between Mr. Aumijo S. Gomes Director of San Francisco Youthworks and Director Chiu regarding the Mayor’s Office Youthworks program.
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Copies of thank you letters received from the public commending DBI employees and Director Chiu’s response letters to the public.
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Commissioner Guinnane said he wanted to discuss item #9a, which was Aaron Peskin’s proposal on secondary units. Commissioner Guinnane said that he was concerned because any units that were already in place were not covered under this proposal and the new units going forward would have to be ADA compliant. Commissioner Guinnane said that his biggest concern with this was that all of the research that would have to be done on these properties going back ten years would have to be done by DBI and that would take a lot of staff time. Secretary Aherne said that this item was on as a communication item in order to give the Commissioners time to read it over before it is on a future agenda. Director Chiu said that this is before the Code Advisory Committee and the Department would also request input from the public. Commissioner Guinnane said that the proposal is forty pages and it could probably be cut down to at last half of that.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about item c. Director Chiu explained the situation to Commissioner Guinnane’s satisfaction.
President Fillon said that he wanted to commend the employees who had received commendations from the public.
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Review and approval of the minutes of the November 5, 2003 meeting
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Commissioner Guinnane made a motion, seconded by Commission Santos that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 049-03
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Review Commissioner’s Questions and Matters.
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a.
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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.
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b.
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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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Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to know what was behind Mayor elect Newsom’s idea of having a monitor come into DBI and asked if someone from the Mayor elect’s office could speak with the Commission or at least to the President to explain these actions. Commission Santos said that he would be happy to contact Mr. Newsom.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to wind up the CAPSS issue and to see the final billings and the final draft from Phase II. Commissioner Guinnane said he would like Supervisor Peskin’s issue with secondary units on a future agenda. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he wanted a report on the Housing Inspection Services and how many inspections per day the Housing Inspectors were completing and how many units are left to be done on the five-year inspections. Commissioner Guinnane said that housing was working on that number to get it down and wanted to know what the number was today. Commissioner Guinnane said that he had previously brought up the issue on three parcels out on Mission Street, with two of the projects being done with no parking.
Vice-President Hood said that she would like if possible for the next meeting to be televised. Commissioner Santos said that the first televised meeting would be in February.
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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.
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Adjournment.
Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D’Anne that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 050-03
The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
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Respectfully Submitted
______________________
Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary
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