2.

3.

 

 

Notice of hearing for interested parties conducted by Ethics Commission to develop permit-processing code of conduct as required by Board of Supervisors legislation effective December 15, 2004.
Acting Director Hutchinson said that the Ethics Commission had developed a Code of Conduct and read a few passages from the law that was signed.   Mr. Hutchinson said that DBI, Planning and DPW were each mandated to adopt written guidelines for determining when there is a public policy basis for processing permit material out of order.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that the law goes on to say that the Department would have to post this Code of Conduct in a conspicuous place and give copies to all employees involved in making decisions regarding permit applications. Mr. Hutchinson said that this was very far reaching legislation and would be very difficult to enforce.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Ethics Commission was looking for people to help them to draft a document and said that DBI would have people present to aid in that task, but said it would be very difficult to process permits on a first in, first out basis.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Department was very concerned about this legislation as should the employees union be concerned because there is provisions in this legislation about disciplining employees who violate these guidelines.  Mr. Hutchinson said that this is clearly legislation that is trying to fix something that is not broken and is part of the long-standing allegations of misconduct, where when someone looks at it from the Civil Grand Jury Report to Rudy Nothenberg to the Controller’s Office who was at DBI for two years, yet there is never any address that is given or any concrete information about who is committing any misconduct.  Mr. Hutchinson said that this was legislation that would dramatically affect service to the public and said that the Department was going to take an active role in this issue.  Mr. Hutchinson said that hopefully the unions would take an active role as well.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that his biggest fear was that the employees could no longer use common sense and this would be like a dictatorship because every action that an employee would take could be scrutinized or misconstrued and this would be a horrific environment in which to work. 

Mr. Hutchinson said that there could be a homeowner who wanted to do some remodeling and during the process they come upon some family emergency a lot of times they come in with a revision and the employee would go ahead and accommodate them.   Mr. Hutchinson said that having such a hard line could potentially be very dangerous to the public and to the employees.  Mr. Hutchinson invited everyone to participate in this process to get a workable document. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked why Mr. Hutchinson thought that the unions would come to the aid of the employees because the unions were not around at the time of the budget hearings or with all of the Department’s staffing problems.   Mr. Hutchinson said that it was only his hope because a lot of the employees were afraid to speak up and afraid to get involved for good reason. Mr. Hutchinson said that with the newspapers and politics being the way it is this tends to silence people and keep them in line, but said that he hoped in this instance the unions would come forward because there was so much at stake for the employees.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the employees need to be allowed to do their jobs and stated that with all of the reports and allegations he had yet to see an address or an incidence where this is really necessary. 

Commissioner Guinnane said that in looking at Rudy Nothenberg who never actually spent any time at the Department, but was over at City Hall, Mr. Nothenberg spent three months preparing his report.   Commissioner Guinnane said that he thought that Mr. Nothenberg was going to look into issues of corruption, but when Commissioner Guinnane met with Mr. Nothenberg, Mr. Nothenberg told him that he was only interested in DBI’s computer system and MIS issues.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he was very encouraged by this because this has been an ongoing problem at DBI, however when Mr. Nothenberg’s report came out all Mr. Nothenberg did was to read the minutes of the BIC and wrote a general report with nothing new.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he thought that it was very poor for Mr. Nothenberg to even come into DBI because he was very biased against the Department.  Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Nothenberg was still against having the Commission even after nine years.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he felt that the Commission was doing a very good job especially with litigation and Code enforcement.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he thought that the Department had really turned around as a result of the Commission. 

Commissioner Ting said that the bargaining unions were present before the Commission previously on this item and asked about any follow up.   Mr. Hutchinson said that the unions were present for a different issue, which was the Code of Professional Conduct and said that a lot of time was taken up with that.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not know if the unions were aware that this important legislation was coming up.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he wanted to thank Assistant Director Lee for sending out a memo to all interested parties including the employees, the union representatives and people who use the Department’s services.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he could see more going wrong with this legislation rather than this being a benefit to the City, but it is the law and the Department would go ahead and work with the Ethics Commission.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Ethics Commission is not at fault here, but the Ethics Commission has to carry out the mandate of the Supervisors.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he would keep the Commission informed of the process.

Commissioner Fillon asked how this would affect the issuance of permits.   Mr. Hutchinson said that the way it is now is that for instance if one hundred permits come in they are distributed to the various divisions, such as major, residential, or commercial plan check and then the Supervisors will assign so many permits to each employee.  Mr. Hutchinson said that each employee receives more applications than they could process for that day and that is what is called the backlog.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that each Inspector or Plan Checker has thirty to forty permits that they are working on at any given time and are always adding new applications.  Mr. Hutchison said that this would require each employee to go through and sort some fifty permits to determine which one came in first and so on and the application that came in first might be incomplete and the employee might have to send out a set of plan check comments.  Mr. Hutchinson asked if that meant that any permits that came into the Department would have to wait until the permits ahead of them were issued.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not want to get ridiculous, but sometimes when things such as this are put in place people take them literally and certainly from his experience the newspapers would pick up on this to try and it would definitely be a danger in trying to process the work.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department needs to let its employees use common sense and trust in the Supervisors to do quality control and back checking to make sure everything is done properly, but in a businesslike manner.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not see that there was anything broken and said that the Department had worked with Ed Harrington’s office to make sure that there are controls in place to make sure that people are treated equally and to make sure that one person’s plans are not going out ahead of others and the Department is working on the MIS functions to ensure fairness.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he saw this as something that would be potentially very dangerous to the public.  Commissioner Fillon said that the Department would have to be proactive on this issue and not wait until after this is slammed down on the Department to find the problems.  Commissioner Fillon said that on the other hand the Department did not want to seem like it was resisting being more ethical because that was not the case at all, but this could, as has happened with other issues in the past, create real logjams with permits.  Commissioner Fillon stated that once this was in place it would be impossible to undo. 

Mr. Hutchinson said that Laurence Kornfield, Chief Building Inspector for Technical Services was working on this along with the Senior Plan Check Managers and himself and Assistant Director Lee.   Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Department was taking a very proactive role in this legislation.

President Santos said that it would be important for consultants, architects and other users to be aware of this legislation and to be involved.   President Santos said that the Department has an online permit tracking system that lets the public know where a permit is at, who is working on it and if there have been any comments sent; the system fully describes the path of the permit.  President Santos stated that he believed that most users are very happy with the system and the improvements that have been made.  President Santos said that any business could always have more efficiency, but said that the online permit tracking system that the Department started in March has been quite successful in helping anyone who wants to follow the steps of a permit.  President Santos said that he would be more than willing to attend any meeting on this issue.

Assistant Director Lee said that she wanted to emphasize a point that was made earlier and said that she thought that it was important that organizations such as the AIA, BOMA, the RBA or whomever send their input either through attendance at a meeting or through a memo to the Ethics Commission on this issue.

Mr. Hutchinson said that the meeting was on Friday, November 19^th from 10:00 a.m. to noon, Room 408 in City Hall or people could fax or e-mail comments to the Ethics Commission.  President Santos said that he would send a letter from the Commission.  Commissioner Fillon said that it would be a real opportunity to show how transparent the process has become and how efficient DBI is in processing permits.

President Santos asked for public comment on items 3a or b.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders Association (RBA) said that he wanted to speak on 3b.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this issue needed to be put in context because there were groups out there that were still smarting from the loss of their positions and the demise of power when this Commission was created.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that these groups are behind the perception that there is corruption ongoing through favored treatment in this Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the spokesperson has been the Chronicle headlines and now the Department was looking for these people to speak out.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that groups such as the Committee on Jobs, the AIA, BOMA and the Chronicle will not speak out on this issue because they were against the creation of this Commission and DBI.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that these groups have never spoken out in favor of this Department through the years and it was only when this Commission went to the public through Channel 26 that the public could see that this Commission created the best expedited process for permits by having a Department that approves 94% of permits within 48 hours and 98% of the public benefits from having permits approved within 30 days.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he agreed with Commissioner Fillon to work with this process because there is corruption and favoritism, but it is not with the small contractors or builders, but the benefactors are the big guys who are complaining about this process.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that in looking at the Planning process if a contractor applies for an EIR today, it takes between three and six months before that permit is assigned then they get a call from the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor’s Office.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is biased and favoritism, but it is with the big benefactors of the Mayor’s Office and the Mayor who won by a very small margin, along with Sophie Maxwell is still saying that there is corruption here.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he welcomed this hearing because he for one wanted to see reform whereby any aide from the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor’s Office would have to go through an Ombudsman in order to contact either the Director, the Assistant Director or any staff.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that reform was needed and said that the Department should work with this so that the employees could carry out their jobs.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that as far as the unions coming in, with all due respect, the unions have been not been representing the employees so it is time for the employees to speak up themselves.

Mr. O’Donoghue said that on item 3a he wanted to say that he knew Carolynn Tusch since 1976 and said that she was an employee who had cancer, but told no one about it.   Mr. O’Donoghue said that in between her treatments Carolynn came to work and was still concerned about her staff and the work at DBI.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Carolynn was an example of the caliber of the employees at DBI and stated that when he gets passionate about the employees and about the Chronicle stories or comments from the Mayor’s Office it is because no one is standing up for DBI employees and the outstanding work that is done at DBI.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Carolynn was with the Department for some thirty-four years, never taking any time off and she worked quietly and calmly without any rancor despite the abuse that she and the other employees in the Department were getting from the press.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he did not know anyone in this City who was as dedicated as Carolynn. 

Assistant Director Amy Lee said that she wanted to speak about Carolynn because she felt that Carolynn was symbolic of the employees at DBI.   Ms. Lee said that Carolynn came to her office about eight months ago and wrote on a pad that she was very, very sick and most likely would die from her illness.  Ms. Lee said that after she and Carolynn had a good cry she tried to speak to Carolynn about taking time off and taking care of herself.  Ms. Lee said that Carolynn’s concerns were for CPB and her staff and how her death would affect the Department.  Ms. Lee said that Carolynn was worried about CPB having enough staff and about staff being overworked and she asked Ms. Lee to make sure to get more staffing.  Ms. Lee stated that Carolynn came to work between her surgeries even though she had hundreds of hours in sick time and vacation, always dressed nicely with full make up.  Ms. Lee said that Carolynn was symbolic of the staff at DBI and will be sorely missed.

Mr. Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic said that when Matier & Ross write about how terrible the Department is and how low morale is maybe they should have met Carolynn Tusch.   Mr. Shaw said that Mr. O’Donoghue raised a very important question and asked if someone could tell him if there was anything in these reforms that would track when the Mayor’s Office makes a call to DBI’s Director or Planning’s Director to ask about expediting a project for a friend.  Mr. Shaw asked if there was anything that tracked phone calls made by the Mayor’s Office to these three Departments.  Mr. Shaw asked why this legislation could go after an employee that was making some $50,000 a year and nothing would track what the Mayor’s Office requests.  Mr. Shaw said that historically that is the way it works; all Mayors have asked for favors for their constituents and expect the Departments to jump when they call, but that should not be the way it is anymore.  Mr. Shaw asked if this was going to be addressed and if not if this could be made part of the Department’s input.

Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department would have to go in and make this part and parcel of this legislation.   Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Mayor appoints most Directors so it is difficult for someone to go against their boss, but DBI is different so he would be willing to bring this matter forward to the Ethics Commission.   Mr. Hutchinson said that this was an excellent suggestion and would make things fair for all members of the public.  President Santos said that this should include not only the Mayor’s Office, but the Board of Supervisors as well.  Mr. Hutchinson said that in the spirit of fairness it should include all public officials. 

President Santos thanked staff and the public who spoke about Carolynn Tusch and said that he had the opportunity to work with her and said she was a phenomenal employee. 

4.

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

Mr. Randy Shaw, Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic said that he agreed with Mr. Cleaveland’s comments and said that the problem was that the Mayor had not signed thirty requisitions for employees.   Mr. Shaw said that the pettiness was getting ridiculous and was inexplicable to him.  Mr. Shaw stated that obviously the money that would be generated for the City plus the advantage of having thirty more employees to process permits seemed so obvious to him because DBI is not part of the General Fund and should not be a part of the City’s hiring freeze.  Mr. Shaw stated that unfortunately the Mayor is trying to use this to get concessions from the Department in other areas, which makes no sense.  Mr. Shaw said that he thought it was time for action because the holidays were coming and people would be out of town so this needs to be resolved to get these positions on board.  Mr. Shaw stated that he would suggest that the Department get an opinion from the City Attorney’s Office as to whether the Mayor had the right to not sign these requisitions or was there some criteria for this situation.  Mr. Shaw said that Supervisors Gonzalez had introduced legislation to have a hearing regarding the issues around DBI and the Mayor’s Office and said that perhaps President Santos could send a letter to Supervisor Gonzalez stating that the BIC would like to have that hearing as soon as possible.  Mr. Shaw said that there are thirty positions that are not being filled and everything is backing up in the City and there will be a lot of angry people yelling at the Department and saying that the Commission is doing a lousy job because the Commission is not doing anything and it is all because the Mayor will not do a pro forma job by signing off on these requisitions.  Mr. Shaw stated that a Supervisor’s hearing would at least bring this into the spotlight and the sooner the better. Mr. Shaw said that he could also see people who pay fees asking where their money is going if it is not going for these positions which gets the Commission and the Department into more trouble.  Mr. Shaw said that hopefully the Mayor will come to his senses, but in the meantime, the Commission should move to get a Supervisor’s hearing and maybe check with the City Attorney’s Office. Mr. Shaw said that he would think that everyone would agree that the Department has to get those people on line.  Mr. Shaw thanked the Commission.

Mr. O’Donoghue said that Alan Greenspan said last week that the growing U.S. deficit would destabilize the U.S. economy and no question about it he was right about that.   Mr. O’Donoghue said that it was the same with the growing deficit in the City, as it would destabilize the economy of this City.   Mr. O’Donoghue stated that Supervisor Gonzalez had called for a hearing about the way DBI has been mistreated and has become the enmity of a political fight by the Mayor’s Office who carries within him the irritation of his very narrow margin win.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that if the Mayor had a beef with him because he chose not to support the Mayor or a beef with Randy Shaw because he also chose not to support the Mayor he has no right as a leader to take it out on any department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that everyone is human, but leaders do not have the privilege or that right; if someone is a leader, an elected officer of this City, they have an obligation to put aside petty differences whether they are real or imagined in order to help the greater good.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that was not what was happening with this Department and because he is considered a political animal and said that he did not doubt that the fact is that in anticipation and knowing that the Department would not get the positions filled he had asked Matt Gonzalez ahead of time to hold this hearing.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that when this hearing is held the public would see that this Department has been the victim of a vendetta, has been singled out and has been impaled by petty politics.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Mayor refusing to fill these positions is illegal and could in fact lead to ethics hearings and the Mayor being brought before the Board of Supervisors.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the Administrative branch could not interfere with the Legislative branch and the Legislative branch cannot interfere with the operations of the Director who is running the Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that there is a violation of the Charter and stated that if he had to go to court again as the RBA had already done he was prepared to do it.  Mr. O’Donoghue thanked the Commission.

Commissioner Guinnane asked if there was a hearing scheduled before the Board of Supervisors or if the Commission should write a letter based on public testimony.   Commissioner Guinnane asked Mr. O’Donoghue to respond to his question.

Mr. O’Donoghue stated that in order to get a hearing scheduled an item must first be introduced at the full Board.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this was introduced at the full Board some months ago and said that he did not push it forward because he was hearing from people at DBI that the Mayor was working with the Department so rather than engage in a fight it was continued.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Commission could certainly write a letter, but all Supervisor Gonzalez would have to do is bring this item forward at a Board hearing and it would be sent to a Committee that could meet with a 72 hour notice.

There was no further public comment.

 

5.

Status of operations at the Department of Building Inspection.  [Commissioner Guinnane]

a.      Overall staffing status.

Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had asked for this item to be calendared under three parts because he was concerned about staff, revenue and expenses and the actual projects in the pipeline especially the private sector versus the Port or the PUC.

Commissioner Guinnane said that the Department had listed twenty-seven positions to be filled, but said that he thought it was a lot more than that and said that he understood that there were going to be more vacancies through retirement before the end of the year.  Commissioner Guinnane asked Mr. Hutchinson to speak about the positions, especially those that are critical. 

Mr. Hutchinson said that he appreciated Commissioner Guinnane asking about this issue and thanked Assistant Director Lee for putting together a very comprehensive report.  Mr. Hutchinson said that in July 2004 Rudy Nothenberg’s report called it inexcusable that there were positions in the Department that had not been filled, some for years.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he and Amy Lee met with Ben Rosenfield, the Mayor’s Budget Director in July with a list of outstanding positions and most of those are the ones listed in the report.  Mr. Hutchinson said that in the course of the meeting he and Amy tried to explain the urgency in trying to comply with the recommendations of Mr. Nothenberg’s report.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he did not agree with everything in Mr. Nothenberg’s report, but said that Mr. Nothenberg was a respected leader and Mr. Hutchinson said that he did agree that the Department needs staffing.  Mr. Hutchinson said that in his report Mr. Nothenberg advised the Mayor not to use his negative power in the budget process to prevent DBI from hiring needed staff. 

Mr. Hutchinson reported that the Department has the money for these budgeted positions and have gone through the grueling six months process to get these vital positions approved.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that DBI is not a General Fund Department and the people who use DBI’s services have paid for those services, with nothing coming out of the General Fund.  Mr. Hutchinson said that those users have helped to fund the CEOP Program where the Department works with non-profits and have paid for DBI to make sure that tenants have safe, sanitary housing and that everyone has heat.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department goes to court to help the poorest of the poor and this is all paid for by DBI’s users.  Mr. Hutchinson said that all that is needed to be able to hire the needed staff is a simple signature from the Mayor’s Office.

Mr. Hutchinson said that during the budget process over the past few years the Department has not been able to hire permanent employees so DBI has often hired retired employees who do not get benefits and do not have to be trained.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Department has also hired temporary employees to work in Public Services.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the report presented to the BIC included the revenues and the service demands of the Department.  Mr. Hutchinson said that several City agencies have approached DBI to work for them and said that he would have a hard time justifying taking an Inspector from the field who is doing inspections for homeowners or builders who are paying for DBI’s services and dedicating these Inspectors to a project such as the Moscone Center.  Mr. Hutchinson said that one Senior Inspector had spent over a year at the San Bruno jail doing inspections and it was very hard to justify that.

Commissioner Guinnane asked what an approved position was and why it could not be filled if it was in the budget process.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he understood that Ben Rosenfield would approve these positions but the paperwork was sitting on Steve Kawa’s desk and Mr. Kawa would not approve these positions and asked if there was any chance that Mayor Newsom was not aware of this situation or is he involved in this too.  Mr. Hutchinson said that there has been so much scrutiny of DBI that he would have to say that the Mayor was aware of this crisis.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that when the budget was approved last year DBI staff left the Board of Supervisors chambers assured that 281 positions could be filled; that number is now down to 260-265 and still no requisitions have been released. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked that since these positions had been funded in the budget could the Department or the BIC circumvent the Mayor and go to the Board of Supervisors to get these positions approved.  Mr. Hutchinson said that would be unprecedented and said he thought it could not be done.  Commissioner Guinnane said that priorities would come up later on the agenda, but he would tend to lean toward giving the public service rather than City agencies. 

President Santos said that he thought that the Mayor’s Office was going to release these positions last week.  Assistant Director Lee said that she had heard the same thing, but so far the positions had not been cleared in People Soft, the program that would allow the Department to fill the positions.  Ms. Lee said that it was a process between the Mayor’s Office, the Controller’s Office and DHR, but usually once the Mayor’s Office had entered the information it would only be a couple of days before the other two offices would sign off.  Ms. Lee said that she understood that the Mayor was looking at all positions Citywide because of the budget crisis, but said that this should not be the case at DBI because it is not a General Fund Department.  Commissioner Guinnane said that it seems that the PUC are being allowed to hire.  Ms. Lee said that she was told last Thursday and Friday that the positions would be approved, but so far they have not been..  Ms. Lee stated that a week ago five IT related positions were approved, but the Department was still waiting for sixteen more positions.  Ms. Lee said that in December she would be looking for FTE’s for fourteen temporary positions that have to be approved every six months.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how hard it would be to get those temporary positions approved.  Ms. Lee said that it would be very tough because the sixteen full time empty positions were vacant positions due to attrition and those were still outstanding. 

Commissioner Hanrahan asked what the Commission could do to aid the Department on this issue. Mr. Hutchinson said that the Commission has always been very supportive of the Department and maybe it would help if a letter was sent from the Commission asking why for five months the Department has been unable to fill these positions.  Commissioner Hanrahan asked if Mr. Hutchinson thought that the positions would be approved next week as she did not want to waste political capital to complain about something that is going to happen.  Mr. Hutchinson said that given what has not been happening over the past four months he was not very confident that the positions would be released.  Ms. Lee said that these positions would be a help to the entire City because if there are qualified people being laid off in other departments DBI would be happy to hire them so it would help everyone. 

Mr. Ken Cleaveland of BOMA said that he could not agree more with Acting Director Hutchinson regarding staffing at DBI.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he had met with Mr. Cleaveland, Mr. Hutchinson and others from downtown last week to talk about staffing and getting permits out on time.  Mr. Cleaveland stated that his members pay for staffing to get the job done expeditiously and said that he believed that private industry that pays the highest fees should get service before the City agencies.  Mr. Cleaveland said that he would encourage the BIC to send a letter to the Mayor and said that BOMA would be happy to sign on along with the Commission to have these positions released.  Commissioner Guinnane said that these positions were very critical to the downtown interests and said that the Department had talked about opening a satellite office downtown to help the developers get their permits.  Mr. Cleaveland said that BOMA had been very supportive of Mayor Newsom and had talked to him about fully staffing DBI and said that Mayor Newsom feels that he cannot treat DBI any different than any other department even though DBI is a self supporting department and in fact, a revenue generator for the City.  Mr. Cleaveland stated that he thought that Mayor Newsom needed to rethink his decision because it affects the entire City.  Commissioner Guinnane said that at the meeting the week before Mr. Cleaveland had suggested getting outside staff to improve turn around time for permit review and inspections.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he would oppose hiring any outside staff and would only agree to something like that if the Department were fully staffed and could not keep up with the workload.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the Mayor was losing millions of dollars to the General Fund by not staffing these positions and getting the construction industry moving.  Commissioner Guinnane asked Mr. Cleaveland to relay his message to the Mayor.

Ms. Lee said that DHR would have serious issues about farming out any plan checking or work that could be done by City employees.  Ms. Lee said that this staffing issue does not even begin to address a succession problem at DBI because DBI is losing a lot of staff due to retirement that are taking a lot of time and knowledge with them.  Ms. Lee said that even for a kitchen remodel a customer wants seasoned staff to look at their plans and it takes six months to a year for staff to be properly trained.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders said that this issue needed to be put in perspective and stated that it is fraud for the Mayor to say that because of the deficit and a freeze on hiring that these fully budgeted positions cannot be filled.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this Department is a fully funded department and was set up to be independent of the General Fund.   Mr. O’Donoghue said that these positions were approved in the current fiscal year and said that DBI did have cutbacks in its budget, but these positions were approved last August.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the only way this issue could be moved forward would be through the pressure of a hearing at the Board of Supervisors.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that publicity is needed to get the message out about the bad intent behind what is happening.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he would be asking the City Attorney’s Office if the Mayor had the authority to refuse to do what he is obligated to do and force the Mayor to sign these requisitions for staff.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the refusal of the Mayor to sign these documents is a dereliction of duty and said that the Mayor could end up in recall if he jeopardizes the fiscal responsibility of this City. 

Mr. O’Donoghue said that staffing is very important and referred to the AIMCO case where the City got the largest settlement for the largest amount of tenant in the United States due to the excellent work of the Housing Division at DBI.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the settlement was in excess of $3M and forced AIMCO to act responsibly toward 700 tenants in the Bay View Hunters Point district.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Housing staff was able to prepare the case for the City Attorney’s Office, but that could not happen today because the Department does not have the resources to devote enough time to cases such as AIMCO.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the employees are the pistons of the economic engine driving this Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that property taxes are the eggs laid by the golden goose and property taxes bring in more funds to the General Fund than anything else and all of that starts at the Building Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this Department should be concentrating on increasing revenues.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Supervisor Gonzales was going to hold this hearing out of necessity because the Mayor has been targeting this Department.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Mayor talked about his twenty-one position papers, but said that all he sees are blank pages and ideas to increase taxes and fees.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that what the Mayor needs to do is to increase revenues and shorten the delays for getting permits to move this City into the business of moving forward. 

Commissioner Ting said that the projected revenues would exceed the budget and asked if those funds would go to the General Fund.  Acting Director Hutchinson said that DBI is independent of the General Fund, but as happened last year with the creation of a “nexus” monies that DBI had were given to Planning which is a General Fund department so in a round about way the money did go to the General Fund.

b.       General expenses and revenue.          

Commissioner Guinnane said that in looking at the last item there was a surplus of money that was not really a surplus because it was attributed to positions not being filled.  Commissioner Guinnane said that last year $6.7M was taken for Planning and in fiscal year ‘03/’04 another $3.75M was taken.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that a law suit had been filed, the briefs have been submitted and Judge Warren would soon be making a decision on whether it was legal for the Mayor’s Office to take that money or not.

Mr. Hutchinson said that he wanted to let the Commission know that the positions that had been spoken about earlier were just a baseline and said that the Department needed additional staff based on the revenues.  Mr. Hutchinson asked Assistant Director Lee to report on the Department’s revenues.

Mr. Lee said that in comparing July 1^st through September 30^th last year to that same quarter this year the Department is exceeding its expectations for revenue in Plan Checking and Building Permits.  Ms. Lee said that this shows just how busy the workload is at DBI.  Ms. Lee stated that the economy is turning around.  Ms. Lee explained that even though revenues are increasing during the budget process expenditures are often cut; the Department has had positions denied and a capital project was not approved.  Ms. Lee said that the process is unpredictable.  Ms. Lee stated that positions were cut from last year’s budget and again this year so revenues are higher, but DBI is working with less staff.

President Santos said that the baseline of positions currently at DBI would not cover the incoming projects.   Ms. Lee said that the Department mentioned several weeks ago that it would put forward a supplemental to hire more people for projects that are in the pipeline and said that the Department was not even staffed to handle the projected revenues.  Ms. Lee said that this was very good for the economy and San Francisco, but not so good for DBI.  President Santos stated that the Department has three problems, those being retirements, vacancies not being filled and a higher work load than expected.  Ms. Lee said that this puts more pressure on the Department.

Commissioner Romero asked if these positions were not approved if Ms. Lee had any plans to meet with the Mayor’s Office.  Ms. Lee said that she and Mr. Hutchinson had met with Ben Rosenfield and Noelle Simmons of the Mayor’s Budget Office several months ago and that she had met with Steve Kawa the previous week to discuss and go over the justifications for each of these positions.  Ms. Lee stated that there have been several meetings, but certainly she would try to have another meeting.  Commissioner Romero said that he had just come from a meeting where layoffs were discussed and said that more City employees were going to be laid off.  Ms. Lee said that it would help to have DBI’s requisitions open because DBI could then hire qualified individuals who might be laid off.   Commissioner Romero asked why the Department had so many temporary, exempt positions.  Ms. Lee said that the Department brings back retired employees to work on a part time or project basis and people were hired for work orders with the PUC and the Assessor’s Office.  Ms. Lee said that usually there is a higher demand in the Department during the summer months, but the workload did not diminish during the winter so these people were still needed.  Ms. Lee stated that the Department wanted to keep a number of these people on for permanent positions, but were not getting the authority to do so.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders said that he would have to differ with Amy regarding the sense of prosperity coming into the City.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that it was not capital investment coming into the City, but a backlog of some 23,000-25,000 units of housing, commercial and remodeling jobs during the last administration that is coming now through the pipeline.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that projects were delayed in Planning and are now coming to DBI.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the SBC layoffs of 1,200 show that business is leaving the City; there is a crisis and everyone will be impacted.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that is why it is unconscionable not to fill these positions that were budgeted for last April or May; it is only politics.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that if these requisitions were open laid off employees could bump into DBI and that is why he is calling for a hearing for the Board of Supervisors to act.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this is a time for statesmanship and if the Mayor is not going to act in a positive manner then some members of the Board or the courts will step in to make him take action. 

Mr. O’Donoghue stated that revenue is up and costs are down because this Department and the Commission are unique and have always operated very conservatively so the Department has always tried to underestimate its revenue and control its costs.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the public needs to know this, as does the Mayor’s Office.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that a year and a half ago at the Residential Builders meeting he warned his members not to invest any more revenue in San Francisco based on the economic and political clouds that are over this City.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that it was insane not to approve these positions that would generate revenue for San Francisco.

c.       Project demand and general customer demand for DBI services.

Commissioner Guinnane said that he had asked for this item.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had information on privately owned projects in the pipeline and said that there were some forty jobs with unit counts over 2,500 units.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the actual amount of the job costs were probably $4B and multiplying that times 1.14% for property tax that would bring in $4.5M to the General Fund.  Commissioner Guinnane said that moving on to when those projects are built and move them on the retail end and it goes from $175 a foot to $400 a foot, that could generate $20M to the General Fund.  Commissioner Guinnane said that at the Port he had the figures for the Mills Project that has been approved and it is around $180M and other projects are coming in over $300M for a total of $500M.  Commissioner Guinnane said to add the tax rate to that amount and there is a tremendous amount of money that would be generated for the General Fund.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he did not have the numbers for remodeling or repairs, but said that it would be a huge number in the millions of dollars because it would be going from small to large.  Commissioner Guinnane estimated that the amount would be another $5M so it would be $25M to $30M for the General Fund in a period of eighteen months.  Commissioner Guinnane said that this is why this Department needs to be staffed.

Commissioner Guinnane said that it had come to his attention that there was some kind of a deal cut with the old Director that the Port was given a break on the fees.  Acting Director Hutchinson said that in the past when a public agency wanted to use DBI’s services they would ask to pay 50 – 60% of the fees, would ask for a delay of the fees or sometimes not even pay the fees.  Mr. Hutchinson said that when he became Acting Director he looked to see if there was authority in the Code that allowed the Department to do this and said that he found none.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he needed to instill in the other departments the fact that he does not have the ability to negotiate fees, much in the same way that he does not have the ability to negotiate fees with private parties.   Mr. Hutchinson said that he wanted to set a fair standard that would be acceptable to everyone.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that when City cars get parking tickets DBI does not get any discount, but has to pay the full price of the tickets so this is a practice throughout the City.  Commissioner Guinnane asked how it was that the previous Director was allowing these discounts.  Mr. Hutchinson answered that it was long standing past practice that Directors got together and negotiated these terms, but said that he did not know of any authority that would allow this.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the City agencies should pay for the services and should pay up front just as private customers do.

Commissioner Guinnane said that he would suggest that the Department take care of private customers first rather than City agencies because the Department does not have the staff to do inspections.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Port of San Francisco has its own staff and its own Code and it would not hurt them to hire new people so the work would get done for the City.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the PUC sometimes does work outside of San Francisco’s jurisdiction such as at Hetch Hetchy and they would request an inspection that was done as a courtesy.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not think that the Department could continue to provide this type of service because of the lack of staff.  Ms. Lee reported that the PUC does not have to get a building permit, but they are required to be Code compliant and could hire a consultant from the outside for this work.

Mr. Hutchinson referred to the Bay View Hunter’s Point project and said that this was similar to the Treasure Island project which had thousands of units and had to be inspected unit by unit.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that Hanson Tom, a Senior Engineer along with a Building Inspector, Plumbing Inspector and Electrical Inspector spent an entire day inspecting these units and then spent approximately two weeks doing an incredibly detailed report.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he believes in Inter-agency cooperation, but once again said that DBI is not fully staffed and this would be a real burden.  Mr. Hutchinson suggested that since this project would be done through the Redevelopment Agency perhaps the Redevelopment Agency could work with Inspectors at the Bureau of Architecture, the School District or the Port or could go through the Civil Service requirements to hire their own personnel.  President Santos said that unlike the PUC this project would require permits.  Mr. Hutchinson said that was correct and said that these permits would be charged at the full rate and the Bay View Hunter’s Point regular Inspectors (Building, Plumbing, Electrical) would inspect those jobs, but the Department does not have the resources to have dedicated staff working on this project.  Mr. Hutchinson mentioned the AIMCO settlement, which will involve some 700 units and said that he thought he would have to provide dedicated staff to that project because the District Inspectors could not handle that volume.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that the Department would have to be very careful about handling all of this extraordinary work due to the fact that DBI does not have staff.  Commissioner Guinnane said that $500,000 had been set aside in the AIMCO case for inspections and said that with the volume of work he thought that this project would need two Building, Plumbing and Electrical Inspectors working at the sites.  Mr. Hutchinson said that there was going to be a Youth Club built out at AIMCO as a result of the settlement and this would require permits and inspections.

Commissioner Guinnane asked what the consensus of the Commission was regarding the private sector versus City agencies.  President Santos said that he thought that the Department would have to prioritize the private sector because they are the ones paying the fees and generating revenue for the City.  Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Commission should write a letter to the City Attorney asking about the Mayor’s ability to hold up these requisitions for staff.  President Santos said that he had been working with Ms. Lee and the Mayor’s Office on these issues and thought that the Commission should wait a couple of days to see the outcome of their meetings.  Commissioner Ting said that he wanted the Department to come back to the Commission with the priorities for the rest of the year.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the private sector would be prioritized before agencies such as the PUC.  Commissioner Ting said that he did not see it as an advantage to have other City agencies hiring Engineers, Plan Checkers or Inspectors to do the jobs that DBI should be monitoring and whose employees have the expertise to do.  Commissioner Ting said that he would treat the City agencies in the same manner as the private sector as long as the City agencies are paying the fees.  Mr. Hutchinson said that with the Port and the Mills Project the Department would have no problem helping to Plan Check and Inspect the project, but right now the Department does not even have staff to do the regular work that comes into the Department so it would be hard to dedicate staff to any project.  Mr. Hutchinson said that it is DBI’s preference to work with other City agencies and said that he hoped the positions would be approved shortly.  Commissioner Romero said that he was concerned with other City agencies contracting out work that could be done by City workers especially in light of layoffs.  Commissioner Ting said that he would like to see this worked out so that DBI could be fully staffed and could take on these jobs.  Commissioner Ting said that the Department is performing above its budget resources and said this was a strong argument to hire more resources if other City agencies are looking for DBI’s help.

Mr. Ken Cleaveland of BOMA said that he completely agreed with Commissioner Ting that the solution is a fully funded and staffed Department so DBI can provide its services to the City agencies and the private sector that is paying the tab.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue of the Residential Builders Association said that the reason other departments contracted with DBI is because it became cost effective because DBI staff was experienced and efficient in doing the Plan Checking and Inspections.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that now the problem that has been created is self-inflicted by disenfranchising a very efficient model because of politics and now the only way to fix that is by strong arming, so to speak.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he was willing to go to the Board of Supervisors, the courts and even the voters because either Steve Kawa who is called the “Ad-hoc” Mayor or the Mayor himself through bad policy and planning has created this impact and fall out.  Mr. O’Donoghue asked which group in the private sector would this impact and said that this was a bad policy for the likes of himself and for businesses represented by Ken Cleaveland because they are the people paying for the services that they are not getting.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the Department issued a permit for the remodel of City Hall that should have cost $1M, but was never paid and said that this courtesy was never allowed for any other City agency.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the Mayor’s Office should act for the economic good of all, but said that some bright Einstein in the Mayor’s Office came up with the idea of merging departments.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that the idea of merging an efficient department such as DBI with such an inefficient department such as Planning was purely idiotic.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that putting money into Planning is like throwing it into a dark hole, as Planning has no guidelines and standards of efficiency.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the BIC is the most independent Commission in the City and any merging would have to go before the voters because the BIC was created by Charter. Mr. O’Donoghue said that the time for being cooperative and non-confrontational is over; it is time to have a hearing over at the Board because there is now a commonality among the Unions, the Department and industry because the City is being stalled in Room 200.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the hearing would not be pretty and said that people who speak out like himself are categorized as whackos but, said that he did not mind that because he is only doing what is necessary.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he hoped that everyone would prosper from this hearing including the Mayor’s Office.

Mr. David Herring, President of the Housing Inspectors Association, Local 21 said that both the complaints from tenants and the routine inspections in Housing Inspection have increased since the public is more aware of services.  Mr. Herring reported that four years ago there were twenty-one Housing Inspectors and today there are only seventeen, so work has increased, but there are fewer Inspectors.  Mr. Herring said that filling these vacant positions is very important.  Mr. Herring stated that the Lead Inspection Division would have an increased work load because legislation was passed to require lead inspections of interiors as well as exteriors.

6.

Review of Communication Items received since the last meeting.  At this time, the Commission may request DBI staff to research an item or to place an item on a future agenda.
(Items 9a – h continued from previous meeting)

 

a.

Copy of letter dated August 11, 2004 from former BIC Commissioner Denise D’Anne to Mayor Gavin Newsom regarding Report by Nothenberg on Dept. of Building Inspection.

 

b.

Copy of letter dated August 25, 2004 from Charles Higueras, AIA of AIA San Francisco to Mayor Newsom Regarding Department of Building Inspection Report by Rudy Nothenberg, Special Monitor.

 

c.

Copy of letter dated August 10, 2004 sent from BIC President Rodrigo Santos to Mayor Gavin Newsom and several staff members regarding an Immediate Disclosure Request regarding Rudy Nothenberg’s report.  E-mails received in response to request.

 

d.

Copies of thank you letters regarding DBI employees and response letters sent by Director’s Office.

 

e.

Copy of letter dated September 8, 2004 from Acting Director Jim Hutchinson to Mr. Ben  Rosenfield, Director of Finance at the Mayor’s Office regarding approval of personnel requisitions in a timely manner.

 

f.

Copy of letter dated September 20, 2004 from Acting Director Jim Hutchinson to Mr. Ted Yamaski, Acting Director of the Department of Human Resources regarding permanent exams for DBI classifications.

 

g.

Copy of letter dated October 4, 2004 from Acting Director Jim Hutchinson to Ed Harrington, City Controller regarding DBI’s budget for fiscal year 2004-05.

 

h.
i.

Copy of the BOMA San Francisco ADVOCATE dated September 27, 2004.
Copy of memo from Tom Hui, Acting Deputy Director to James Hutchinson, Acting Director regarding requests from City Departments to contract for DBI services.

 

j.

Copy of letter dated October 20, 2004 from Acting Director Jim Hutchinson to Mr. Lewis Loeven of DTIS regarding the status of DTIS management of DBI information technology.

 

k.

Copy of Memorandum dated October 22, 2004 from Rosemary Bosque, Chief Housing Inspector to Jim Hutchinson, Acting Director regarding City of Chicago’s Guide to Porch and Deck Design & Construction”.

 

l.

Copy of Memorandum dated November 3, 2002(4) from Michael Cohen, Director of Economic and Workforce Development regarding Hunters Point Shipyard.

 

m.

Copy of Beyond Chron article titled “CEOP Brings Tenants and Landlords Together to Improve Housing.

 

n.

Copy of Memorandum of Commendation dated October 22, 2004 from Jim Hutchinson, Acting Director to Val Bacharach, Senior Business Analyst of MIS.

 

o.

Letter dated November 10, 2004 from Mr. John Kelly regarding DBI’s responsibilities for homeless shelters.

 

Mr. Hutchinson said that on item #6f the Department is making an effort to go ahead with testing for these classifications and said that exams for Sr. Building Inspectors, Chief Building Inspectors and Chief Housing Inspectors had been added to the list.

Mr. Hutchinson said that on item #6g that the Department would rather not put out a letter drafted in this manner, but after the difficult budget process this past year the Department wanted to indicate that the budget process does provide for reduced services and wanted to comply with Mr. Nothenberg’s suggestions.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he felt hand strung because on the one hand the Mayor had someone come to the Department to make recommendations and then on the other hand the Mayor is preventing the Department from implementing those recommendations.

Secretary Aherne called the Commission’s attention to item #6l regarding Hunters Point and recommended that the Commissioners read this item because it would be coming before the Commission at the December 6, 2004 meeting.  Ms. Aherne advised that this legislation had been sent to the Code Advisory Committee for review and recommendation.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he would be prepared to speak on this issue at the next meeting regarding the fiscal impact on DBI and if this would become a Special Inspection District.  Mr. Hutchinson said that this tied into the earlier discussions about DBI working with other City agencies.

Commissioner Romero asked if regarding item #6c there had been any public record response.  Ms. Aherne said that she received an e-mail stating that there were no public records available and that no written instructions were given to Mr. Nothenberg according to the Mayor’s Office.

President Santos said that the Commission would go to item #6o, a letter from Mr. John Kelly.  Commissioner Guinnane said that item #6o tied into item #7.

Commissioner Hanrahan asked if she could go back to the item regarding Hunters Point because she wanted to point out to the public why it was important to pay attention to this matter.  Commissioner Hanrahan said that part of the legislation says that the Code would be revised for applications for building or grading permits in Hunters Point Shipyard A and stated that there is a potential hazardous waste problem in these buildings.  Commissioner Hanrahan stated that this was a big problem and said that she wanted everyone to be aware of this issue.  Ms. Aherne said that the Code Advisory Committee would be discussing this item at their November 19^th meeting and said that any Commissioner that had concerns could contact Mr. Alan Tokugawa with comments. 

President Santos said that the Commission would now go to item #6o, a letter from Mr. John Kelly regarding the Department’s responsibility for homeless shelters and reminded Mr. Kelly that there was a three-minute limit for public comment.

Mr. Kelly said that he appreciated the opportunity to bring this item to the attention of the Commission. Mr. Kelly asked if the Commission would hear his comments on item #7 before his comments on item #6o.  President Santos agreed.

Mr. Kelly said that at the last meeting he began his review of his grievances against the Department regarding two homeless shelters, the Episcopal Sanctuary and Multi-Service Center South.  Mr. Kelly stated that since the last meeting he had a chance to put his grievances in writing and that is item #7, his letter dated November 9^th.  Mr. Kelly said that he had nine complaints in his letter and since he was under a time constraint he would summarize his complaints and then answer any questions in greater detail.  Mr. Kelly said that his complaints about overcrowding in these two homeless shelters had resulted in Notices of Violation being issued for major violations in both of these centers.  Mr. Kelly said that he and the Department were at issues over other items at these shelters and said he would hope to discuss those issues at the next BIC meeting.  Mr. Kelly said that he felt that the Department had responded to his grievances in a biased and unprofessional manner and said he had reached the conclusion that the Department was intent on not finding violations unless it was completely unavoidable.  Mr. Kelly said that he came to this conclusion because initially the Department did superficial inspections and his original complaints were dismissed then reinstated because of his objections.  Mr. Kelly said that the Department failed to supply records, which led to findings of violations according to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force.  Mr. Kelly said that the Department destroyed records that were the subject of his public records request and this led to an additional finding of violation by the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force and a referral for investigation of possible criminal activity.  Mr. Kelly stated that he felt that he was treated as an adversary by Department personnel and said that on occasion he was treated rudely and impolitely.  Mr. Kelly said that for the reasons stated in his letter he believed that Mr. James Hutchinson was in particular biased and unprofessional.  Mr. Kelly said that he knew that the Department had been the subject of reports finding biased and favoritism including a report by the Grand Jury and said that he knew that the Commission had been at a disadvantage in responding to these reports because a complainant had not been identified, but this is not the case in his issues.  Mr. Kelly said that he was ready to answer any questions the Commission might have regarding his complaints. 

Commissioner Guinnane said that the property on 8^th Street had come up at the previous meeting and said that he went to the property and spent about two hours trying to reconstruct the permits dating from 1988 through 2004.  Commissioner Guinnane said that a lot of the problem with the permits was that they were 90% signed off by departments such as Fire and the ADA, but were never completely finaled out by DBI.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had met with Acting Director Hutchinson, Carla Johnson and Rafael Torres-Gil to resolve all the issues and said he believed that the Department was very close to issuing a Certificate of Final Completion (CFC) to abate all problems with expired permits.  Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Kelly had a complaint about the 50 ft. rule for beds, but said that it was his understanding that this shelter was in place before that Code came into practice so this shelter would be exempt from the 50 ft. rule.  Mr. Hutchinson said that in reviewing Mr. Kelly’s complaints over the past two years the Episcopal Sanctuary was the first homeless shelter in the City and said that he was a District Inspector in the 1980’s when it was converted from a bathhouse to a homeless shelter and said that there was nothing to cover homeless shelters in the Code at that time.  Mr. Hutchinson reported that in the 1990’s there was a need for more of these facilities so the Department wrote an Administrative Bulletin with guidelines to help staff process the permits.  Mr. Hutchinson said that as with other items in the Code that are legally preexisting they are allowed to remain unless they are substantially altered.  Mr. Hutchinson said that this was the position the Department took with the Episcopal Sanctuary.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department has tried to satisfy Mr. Kelly’s requests, but Mr. Kelly does not accept the Department’s decisions and that is his right. 

Commissioner Guinnane asked Mr. Kelly what he hoped to accomplish by appearing before the Commission and was it that Mr. Kelly wanted to put these people out in the street. Mr. Kelly said that with his November 9^th letter he wanted to assure that people who come to the Building Inspection Department would be treated fairly and said that was not the situation in his case and that was his objective.  Mr. Kelly stated that regarding his complaints against the homeless shelters the issues that were just talked about concerning the CFCs and the 50 ft. rule regarding the Episcopal Sanctuary he would be asking the Commission to consider those items at next month’s meeting after he had a little more time to go over the records.  Mr. Kelly said that the reason he needed more time was because he was a complete novice and it had taken the Department almost a year from the time he issued a complaint to the time he received an answer that the 50 ft. rule does not apply.  Mr. Kelly said that his goal was not to put anybody out on the street, but his goal was to make sure that homeless shelters are given the same consideration by the City and the people living in those shelters are given consideration for humane treatment, as is everybody else.  Mr. Kelly stated that he thought that this should be the Commission’s objective as well.  Commissioner Guinnane said that it was.

Commissioner Guinnane asked Mr. Hutchinson what the status of the CFC was for this shelter.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he met with Carla Johnson late on the previous Friday and said that there was a clinic on the first floor that is supposed to be accessible for the disabled, but furniture had been stored in that room.  Mr. Hutchinson said that staff was going back out to the shelter today and it was his understanding that the CFC might be issued today or this week.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the shelter staff was going to clean out the furniture on the first floor and remove some bedding in another part of the shelter, and upon completion of that the shelter would be fully compliant and would be signed off.  Mr. Hutchinson said that typically in a shelter such as this there are ongoing complaints and said he did not expect that to stop. 

President Santos said that Mr. Kelly said that his goal was to provide adequate housing for everyone and said that he and the rest of the Commission agree with that statement.  President Santos asked if there was perhaps some unsafe condition at these shelters that Mr. Kelly was concerned about.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he did not think that was Mr. Kelly’s concern, but said that the building does need a CFC and that was going to happen.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department did issue temporary CFCs and were lax in allowing those to go on, but said that temporary shelters are often opened when the weather gets bad and are often overcrowded which the Department is not aware of, but things happen due to the necessity of housing people.  Mr. Hutchinson said that this property was not unsafe, but Mr. Kelly was right in saying that the Department should have issued a CFC. 

Commissioner Guinnane said in going through the job cards there are probably fifteen permits, but 80% of them have been completely signed off and the only issue with the remaining job cards was that they were not signed off by the Building Department.  Commissioner Guinnane said that the Executive Director at the Episcopal Shelter was actively working on any problems.

Commissioner Ting asked if Acting Director Hutchinson could address the complaints regarding the various Building Inspectors in particular the situation with Carla Johnson as well as with David Gogna and Ken Harrington.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he had talked to all of those individuals based on Mr. Kelly’s complaint.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he was in front of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force as a result of Mr. Kelly’s complaints and said that he had opted to go the State Attorney General’s Office.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he was personally up on charges of official misconduct.  Mr. Hutchinson said that there were a number of individuals in the Department that Mr. Kelly is upset with and said that he realized when he talked to Carla that someone can be curt or short tempered at times, but said that with the preponderance of evidence here and the number of meetings and the things the Department has attempted to do said that he did not think that the staff was rude.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he had apologized to Mr. Kelly in writing if staff had done anything that led him to believe that any staff member was disrespectful or rude.  Mr. Hutchinson said that staff has had the frustration of having to go over time and time again the same information and Mr. Kelly does not want to accept it.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he felt that the Department and Mr. Kelly had reached a stalemate and said he appreciated Mr. Kelly coming to the meeting to discuss this with all of the Commissioners.  Commissioner Ting asked what the stalemates were.  Mr. Hutchinson said that there were a couple of issues one being that with the Episcopal Sanctuary that was opened in the 1980’s and the fact that a CFC was never issued.  Mr. Hutchinson said that Mr. Kelly was entirely correct that this should have been done.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he felt the Department had the best motives about the shelter and said he was not going to close a shelter that was fire safe and had 99% of what they needed for a piece of paper.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that he and Mr. Kelly disagree about that and said that was fine. 

President Santos said that he did not understand how Mr. Kelly could spend so much time on a technicality.  Mr. Hutchinson said that one of the things that became a bone of contention early on was that Mr. Kelly met with Director Frank Chiu who then referred Mr. Kelly to Chief Housing Inspector Rosemary Bosque.  Mr. Hutchinson said that Rosemary then sent two Senior Housing Inspectors out to the homeless shelter and they made some very simple sketches.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he then became aware of the situation and asked that the file be transferred down to Chief Inspector Wing Lau as homeless shelters come under the jurisdiction of the Building Inspectors, not Housing Inspectors.  Mr. Hutchinson stated that Senior Building Inspectors Andy Green and Carla Johnson then took over the case and when the file was transferred some of the Housing Inspector’s erroneous sketches were not included.  Mr. Hutchinson said that this became the Genesis of Mr. Kelly’s complaints and explains the situation that the Department is now in where Mr. Kelly claims that files were destroyed or withheld from him.  Mr. Hutchinson said that he had boxes of files on this issue and said that the Director, Assistant Director, Deputy Directors, all Chief Inspectors, most Senior Inspectors and some Housing and Building staff have all met with Mr. Kelly to try to resolve this issue.  Mr. Hutchinson said that the Department was not in agreement with Mr. Kelly about the 50 sq. ft. rule and Mr. Kelly believes that the Department destroyed some records even though those records do exist on microfilm. 

Commissioner Ting asked Mr. Kelly to explain the crux of his disagreement with the Department. Mr. Kelly said that he had three issues with the Department; the way his complaints were handled, but stated that he did not want any individual in the Department punished, but said he would be remiss if he did not bring this to the attention of the Commission.  Mr. Kelly said that he does not trust the Department and lastly said that he did not want any other public member making a complaint to the Department to have to go through what he had endured.  Mr. Kelly stated that he had not been able to learn why it was taking so long for a CFC to be issued and keeps hearing that the Department is close to issuing one. 

Mr. Kelly said that he wanted his complaint of the 50 sq. ft. rule to be heard at the next Commission meeting because it had taken the Department one year to make a decision that the 50 sq. ft. rule does not apply to these two homeless shelters.  Mr. Kelly said that he probably disagreed with that decision, but wanted to be heard on that issue at the next meeting.

Mr. Kelly said that he wanted to get back to his letter of November 10^th, which was item #60 and wanted to request that the Commission direct the Department not to issue a CFC until after the Commission had a chance to hear his complaint about the Department’s decision on the 50 sq. ft. rule.  Mr. Kelly stated that the reason for that was because if the 50 sq. ft. rule should apply then these shelters are in gross violation.  Mr. Kelly said that the space provided is only 30 sq. ft. and these are bunk beds so these people are only provided with 15 sq. ft. per person and these conditions seemed inhumane to him.

Commissioner Ting said that Mr. Kelly talks about inhumane conditions, but the alternative to being in these crowded conditions would be to be out on the streets.  Commissioner Ting said that Mr. Kelly had stated that he had been treated rudely, but did not go into detail regarding this matter in his letter.  Mr. Kelly said that he gave detailed information in his exhibits R, S and T.  Mr. Kelly said that regarding people being put out on the street, he would say that if it was a land owner who did not comply with the law he did not believe that the Department would overlook it; therefore, the Department should not give the City an open pass just because it would have to spend more money to comply with the law.  Mr. Kelly said that if this were to happen it would be an outrage.

Commissioner Guinnane said that Mr. Kelly was complaining about how inefficient the Department has been in not issuing a CFC and now was asking the Commission to direct the Department not to issue a CFC.  Mr. Kelly said that the shelter had been operating for four years without a CFC and asked that none be issued until his further complaint had been heard.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he could see no reason why the CFC could not be issued and then the issue of the 50 sq. ft. rule could be dealt with separately.  Mr. Kelly said that there were immovable partitions and it would not be easy for the shelter to comply.  Commissioner Guinnane offered to go to the shelter and see for himself what the conditions were and report back at the next meeting.  Acting Director Hutchinson said that these homeless shelters predate any requirements that have been set for homeless shelters in the same way that the Department does not go after a building that was constructed in 1910 and have it comply with 2004 Building Codes.  Mr. Hutchinson said that Mr. Kelly has been informed of the Department’s position on this issue many times, both verbally and in writing; there is a disagreement on this and Mr. Kelly chooses not to accept the Department’s decision. 

Commissioner Ting asked if Mr. Hutchinson could prepare a memo for the Commission summarizing the Departments position on Mr. Kelly’s complaints so that the BIC could have a better understanding of the situation.  Commissioner Ting said that this would be on the next meeting’s agenda. 

Mr. Kelly said since Commissioner Guinnane was going out to the shelter he wanted to be able to accompany him or go at another time because it had been a year since he had visited the shelter and perhaps some improvements had been made. 

Commissioner Hanrahan said that she would suggest that Mr. Kelly could look into the overcrowding in jails because having been double bunked once for political action perhaps the City could eliminate that population and save some money.  Mr. Kelly said that he did not believe that the 50 sq. ft. rule applied to jails.  President Santos said that Mr. Kelly stated that there were two individuals, Mr. Hutchinson and Ms. Johnson, who were rude to him.  Mr. Kelly said that neither Mr. Hutchinson nor Ms. Johnson were ever rude to him, but said he believed that Mr. Hutchinson did not act in a particularly professional way and said he believed Mr. Hutchinson was biased and influenced by the City.  Mr. Kelly stated that Mr. Gogna was rude to him and said he referred to this situation in his letters to Mr. Chiu and Mr. Hutchinson and said that on one occasion in a meeting at the Multi Center South Mr. Harrington was very rude to him, but perhaps that was because Mr. Harrington had to do an inspection because records were destroyed.  Mr. Kelly said that he did not believe that was any reason for Mr. Harrington to be rude to him; Mr. Kelly said that he was not asking for any disciplinary action to be taken against anybody.

Commissioner Guinnane said that Ms. Jakkee Bryson came before the Litigation Committee about the Episcopal Sanctuary and spoke for forty-five minutes about how wonderful Mr. Hutchinson and the Department were in handling her complaints.  Mr. Kelly said that Ms. Bryson raised the issue of the Episcopal Sanctuary not having a CFC in the early 1990’s. 

Mr. Kelly asked to speak on his letter dated December 10, 2004.  President Santos said that this would be put on the next agenda.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that Mr. Kelly was speaking about a 50 ft. rule and said that when he was growing up in Limerick he would have been happy to be separated from his brothers by 5 ft. because they were all crowded into one bed.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that what the public or the Mayor’s Office does not realize is the amount of time that the Department has put into this one complaint which he presumed was about the quality of life and hoped that was really the intent behind this.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that this time was paid for by building inspection fees and subsidized by the private sector.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that this was an important and good thing because prior to the creation of the BIC the public or people like Mr. Kelly had no right of redress, with or without merit, to come before this body who listened patiently to that complaint.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that in these tough budget times it was important that the industry made this Department self-sufficient because of economic cycles to immunize DBI from layoffs during the down cycles and to keep social services from being impacted, which both are now happening. Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the Department was fiscally responsible and that was why his industry was now filing the $10M lawsuit to get that money back so that these kinds of services could be improved, housing inspections continued and tenant issues addressed.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that not one nickel of Mr. Hutchinson’s time, Carla Johnson’s time or any other staff member’s time comes from the General Fund, it comes from this Special Fund Department created by the private sector which is a very good thing and needs to continue.

8.

Review Commissioner’s Questions and Matters.

 

a.

Inquiries to Staff.  At this time, Commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the Commission.

 

b.

Future Meetings/Agendas.  At this time, the Commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a Special Meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Building Inspection Commission.

 

Commissioner Guinnane said that before the 80 Natoma issue he had some items that were delayed due to that case.  Commissioner Guinnane asked that the Department report on foundation details, in particular the 50 cases that involved Engineer James Li with a pattern of defective foundation details.  Commissioner Guinnane said that he wanted a report on any other outside Engineers that might be submitting this same kind of detail. 

Secretary Aherne informed the Commission that the Abatement Appeals Board would be hearing three cases before the next BIC and said that there would be an appeal on the denial of an emergency order at the next meeting.  Commissioner Guinnane said that his items could be held over to a future meeting.

Mr. Joe O’Donoghue said that he wanted to comment on how fortunate DBI was to have an Acting Director like Jim Hutchinson and said that people of his character are sadly missing in this City.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Mr. Hutchinson’s character demonstrates why he is not popular with the Mayor’s Office because Mr. Hutchinson has the courage of his convictions and the tenacity to speak out on unpopular issues against the Mayor’s policies.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he would like to see more of that independence which this Charter derived by other Departments who should look at this Commission and Mr. Hutchinson’s performance which makes this City viable, the Department is successful and DBI employees are secure.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that the morale in DBI is on the rise because finally there is someone standing up to the bureaucrats who are in the Mayor’s Office, including the Mayor.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that just as he would have others leading against Mayor Willie Brown now he would have others leading against Mayor Newsom.  Mr. O’Donoghue stated that he would also appeal to Ken Cleaveland that it is not enough to work together because that is an economic interest, but said that everyone must go on working together to insure that when there is a wrong that it is righted and that someone speaks out against that wrong and not be silent because that wrong is being committed by a friend or an ally.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that DBI has employees such as Amy Lee and everyone from clerks to the Director is meshing in a new rise in morale because of people such as Jim, who does not want the job permanently.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that Mr. Hutchinson is ready to step into the breech to say and speak out and not to be afraid to express on behalf of the employees what is wrong.  Mr. O’Donoghue said that he wanted to say thank you to Mr. Hutchinson on behalf of his industry and said the industry was fortunate to have Jim.

Mr. Ken Cleaveland of the Building Owners and Managers Association said that since he was brought into the conversation by the previous speaker BOMA would like to go on record by speaking in favor of Jim Hutchinson as a permanent Director if that is the Mayor’s will.  Mr. Cleaveland stated that he thought Mr. Hutchinson has done a wonderful job as the Acting Director and has done a great job as a Deputy Director for many years.  Mr. Cleaveland stated that BOMA has great relationships with Jim Hutchinson and said that the downtown business community is very happy with Mr. Hutchinson’s performance.  Mr. Cleaveland said that Amy Lee was a very capable, able employee as well, but BOMA was quite happy with the Acting Director and would be happy to see him made permanent. 

Mr. John Kelly said that he would like the Commission to see how DBI staff acts with not just the movers and shakers in the City, but how they interact with people like him.  Mr. Kelly said that the average person comes into DBI without knowing anybody or without having any experience in dealing with anybody and if the average person is treated rudely and abruptly then that reflects on the whole Department.  Mr. Kelly said that once again he was saying that he was not looking for any retribution to anyone in the Department for rude and abrupt treatment that he received, but did want the matters addressed where his complaints were superficially investigated and improperly dismissed and where his public records requests were improperly handled.  Mr. Kelly stated that he thought that those matters were substantive and serious and should be considered so by this Commission.

Commissioner Guinnane said that he has known Jim Hutchinson for twenty-five years and has seen him interact with a lot of people and said that he had never, ever seen Jim be rude to anybody. Commissioner Guinnane said that he found it very hard to believe that Jim Hutchinson was rude to Mr. Kelly.  Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Hutchinson was not rude to him. Commissioner Guinnane said that as far as he was concerned Mr. Hutchinson was the best Director this Department has ever had; he is accessible and he is out on the job.  Commissioner Guinnane stated that last Sunday Mr. Hutchinson was out on Wood Street when there was an emergency and said he would stand by this Director 100%.  Mr. Kelly said that he would ask the Commission to have Mr. Hutchinson address his specific complaints against Mr. Hutchinson in the handling of Mr. Kelly’s complaints and public records requests.  Mr. Kelly stated that Commissioner Guinnane might have a high regard for Mr. Hutchinson in how he has dealt with the Commissioner and others in the past, but Mr. Kelly said that he had specific complaints that he thought must be addressed.

President Santos said that the Commission had heard Mr. Kelly and had agreed to have this issue as an agenda item at the next meeting.

10.

Adjournment.

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

RESOULTION NO. BIC 063-004

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 p.m

 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,



________________________
Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary