Building Inspection Commission
BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)
Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 408
Adopted March 6, 2002
MINUTES
The meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 1: 15 p.m. by President Fillon.
1. Roll Call - Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified.
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
Alfonso Fillon, President Denise D'Anne, Commissioner
Bobbie Sue Hood, Vice-President Esther Marks, Commissioner
Roy Guinnane, Commissioner Rodrigo Santos, Commissioner
Debra Walker, Commissioner
Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary
D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:
Frank Chiu, Director
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Sonya Harris, Secretary
2. President's Announcements.
President Fillon stated that he had no announcements.
3. Director's Report. [Director Chiu]
a. Report on the Revised Cost Schedule for DBI.
Director Chiu said that this item was agendized because a couple of project sponsors had concerns about the way DBI did the cost schedule last year and the Commission had directed the staff to meet with representatives of the various industries and the public to revisit the entire way of calculating the construction cost valuation. Director Chiu stated that one idea that came up was to do away with the Marshall and Swift based schedule. Director Chiu said that Laurence Kornfield and his staff met with numerous people within the industries and the conclusion reached was that using the Marshall and Swift data is still the best way to do it. Director Chiu said that he would like to inform the Commission, based on the recommendation from the public,
that the Department would like to continue using Marshall and Swift. Director Chiu said that he was not asking for the approval of the Commission at this time, but would like any Commissioners that have any concerns about this cost data to review the information and get back to the Department with comments. Director Chiu asked Laurence Kornfield to make a brief statement.
Mr. Laurence Kornfield introduced himself as Chief Building Inspector with the Technical Services Division. Mr. Kornfield said that he thought it was about a year ago that the Commission asked the Department to take a close look at the cost valuation schedule to see if it was indexed to the correct standard or was there another index that should be used. Mr. Kornfield stated that the purpose of the valuation standard is so that there is a clear and understandable basis upon which the cost of construction could be based; this would be new construction as well as alteration or renovation work. Mr. Kornfield said that the Building Code says that the Department indexes itself to the Marshall and Swift valuation service standard, which is updated by the Commission annually, if the Commission chooses to do such an update. Mr. Kornfield said that there were some concerns from project sponsors saying that DBI was valuing the buildings too high and therefore, their fees are too high and as a result the Assessor's records show that the value is high and the customer pays more taxes. Mr. Kornfield said that the Department ran a series of public workshops that included members of BOMA, members of the contracting community, the public, and the Code Advisory Committee. Mr. Kornfield said that there was extensive public comment where alternative types of standard valuation methods were reviewed and other valuation experts attended the workshops. Mr. Kornfield said that the Department received many comments during the course of this and at the final issuance of a draft in October received some comments, which were addressed and summarized in the report. Mr. Kornfield stated that the Department had tried to get engineers, architects, contractors and so on involved and everyone agreed that this is a reasonable standard. Mr. Kornfield said that it is indexed and adjusted up to the current Marshall and Swift standard which is 3.4% above the index that was adopted in the last standard which was the January, 2001 schedule. Mr. Kornfield said that there were no objections and felt that all questions from the public had been answered.
President Fillon called for any questions from the Commission.
Commissioner D'Anne asked if this information was going to be posted on the website. Director Chiu said that once it was approved by the Commission this information could be posted on the website.
Director Chiu said that it was his intention to put this item on the next agenda for the Commission to decide whether this would be formally adopted. Commissioner Walker said that this would again allow public comment.
b. Status of current fiscal year revenue and workload.
Director Chiu said that as everyone knew, the entire City, State and Country is facing an economic downturn and as a result DBI is facing a deficit in terms of projected revenue. Director Chiu said that in terms of the permit activity, comparing month to month, the Department is only
looking at a 34% difference. Director Chiu stated he has been monitoring the revenue and permit activity for the last six months, since July, and since that time in terms of construction valuation, the Department is facing a 30 to 40 to 60% downturn. Director Chiu reported that in terms of revenue the Department is averaging 37% down. Director Chiu said that Taras Madison was present to talk about this situation in more detail and stated that within the current fiscal year, which will end on June 30, the Department was facing a deficit of up to $5M. Director Chiu stated that last year the Department had projected revenue of $35M so that means that the Department is looking at closing out the year with revenue of $30M or less. Director Chiu said that as a result he has been meeting with the Managers to look at ways to cut costs and ways to make the Department more efficient. Director Chiu stated that he had issued a memo to the Mangers that the Department will no longer be open for Saturday service; the Department had been opening on Saturdays to not only serve homeowners and customers, but the workload was at the peak time and the Department utilized the time to do plan checking, but as a result of the economic downturn the Department would no longer provide this service. Director Chiu said that the Department was not approving overtime without his approval and was looking at training and travel to make sure that training was only provided when necessary. Director Chiu said that the Department has to comply with Assembly Bill 717, which states that the technical staff has to have 45 hours of continuing education every three years. Director Chiu said that for those people who have met or exceeded the requirement, training would not be provided, but training would be continued for those who needed to fulfill the requirement. Director Chiu stated that the Department has not been filling vacancies and said that he would continue to look at all of the temporary positions and maybe cut those hours, but if the trend continued the Department may have to lay off some of those temporary people. Director Chiu said that the Department had not yet gone to this extreme, but were asking for a voluntary reduction of hours among those temporary people.
Commissioner Guinnane said that about four months ago there was a discussion at the Commission regarding the extension of 1660 Mission Street. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he had put the item on the calendar to actually stop the construction. Commissioner Guinnane said that at that time he had asked Director Chiu and Amy Lee about any shortfall in income. Commissioner Guinnane said that the Director and Assistant Director had reported at that time that permits and revenue were up and that there was no drop of any kind and now all of a sudden, three or four months go by, and the Department is down 40%. Commissioner Guinnane asked how management could be watching this since July and yet in August and September there was no problem, and now the Department is way down in revenue. Commissioner Guinnane said that he was concerned. Director Chiu said that he could go back and find out when the extension was discussed and said that it could be that when it was discussed revenue was still up. Director Chiu said that he has been looking at this monthly in terms of the building valuation and saw the decrease. Director Chiu said that he would be happy to go back and look at the dates. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a lot of conversation about the actual development of 1660 Mission because of cost overruns and the end result was that Vice-President Hood had requested a study on it. Commissioner Guinnane said that he did not think that it was over four months ago and asked Vice-President Hood for confirmation. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that it was about four months ago. Commissioner Guinnane said that if the Director was watching the revenue from July, or prior to July, and now revenue is down 40% someone is asleep on the revenues. Commissioner Walker
said that she recalled the conversation and said that the question was asked about what current revenues were and when the Department could expect a decrease because everyone was seeing that the economy was changing. Commissioner Walker said that the truth is that no one could have seen that this would turn around so quickly and so deeply. Commissioner Walker said that this is a substantial decrease in revenue and stated that she hoped the Department was acting swiftly to ascertain its position.
Commissioner Santos said that Director Chiu had mentioned that the Department was considering laying off temporary employees and asked what percentage of employees were temporary. Director Chiu said that at the most it would be ten to twelve people. Commissioner Santos asked if this was an initial step that would have to be reevaluated. Director Chiu said that the number of permits is still there, but the number of major projects is down. Director Chiu stated that most of the projects coming in are smaller residential or commercial projects and the workload is still there, but the old days of having major projects is gone. Commissioner Guinnane said that the valuation has dropped about 110% from what was coming in before. Commissioner Guinnane said that there are a lot more permits, but the actual dollar amount is way down. Director Chiu said that the Department is seeing smaller projects and next year the Department will have to review the fee structure. Director Chiu said that as of today a customer could apply for a permit with a minimum fee of $28.50, but this does not even cover the processing time, let alone cover if an inspection is necessary. Director Chiu said that the Department is going to look at that situation and in the past it was not a big issue because the Department had other ways to offset these costs. Commissioner Walker asked if Director Chiu was talking about the minimum fees. Director Chiu said that was correct.
Commissioner Guinnane asked if 3b would be tied into item #6. Director Chiu said that item #6 was for the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
Taras Madison, Manager of Administration and Finance said that she would like to clear up a few things. Ms. Madison said that the overall revenues are down about 34% and that is from actual and not from the budgeted amount. Ms. Madison said that if the Department had budgeted from what was actually collected last year, the Department would be down 34%, but the Department is actually down 16% and that is a little less than what was anticipated. Ms. Madison said to answer the question about what happened so quickly from what she could gather in July and August things looked okay, and it looked like revenue would be down a little, but not very much. Ms. Madison said that September, October, November and particularly December are when the revenues went down and this is why, even though the Department budgeted for $33M, to date not even half of that has been collected. Ms. Madison said that is why it was estimated that the Department would only collect about $28M this current fiscal year.
Vice-President Hood asked if the sudden downturn in October, November and December was related to 9/11/01 and if there was any way of tracking that. President Fillon said that from his own experiences, he would say yes, absolutely because in September his firm lost three large projects right off of the bat. President Fillon said that those were the types of projects that created all of the revenue for the Department, the skyscrapers and big, big projects. President Fillon said that those are going away right now and there are no new ones coming through the pipeline. President Fillon said that the dot com melt down contributed as things were already
going down and then with 9/11/01 it just pushed everything over the edge. Vice-President Hood said that she was seeing a slowdown in the architectural industry and Commissioner Santos said that there was a slowdown in engineering, but stated that the industry was affected by the anti-growth activists as well.
Commissioner Walker asked that this issue be an agenda item for the next meeting for further discussion. Commissioner Guinnane said that it would be discussed under item #6.
Vice-President Hood said that she would like to have the fee structure as an agenda item as she knew that the Department, in the past, has used the larger projects to subsidize keeping the fees steady on the smaller projects because analysis indicated that this method was working. Vice-President Hood said that if the situation has changed and there are no large projects the Commission would have to take a look at that.
c. Status of Management Information Projects and other City agency reviews thereof.
Director Chiu stated that he wanted to give the Commissioners a heads up that the prime contractor, GCSI, who was doing a major portion of the Department's MIS upgrades, such as bar coding to enhance quality assurance, single form permit, and all of the other projects has filed for bankruptcy. Director Chiu said that as a result, GCSI did not pay the sub contractors who were actually doing the work and there are a lot of legal issues to figure out as to how to continue with the projects. Commissioner Walker asked if this was the contractor that the City was using for all of the departments. Director Chiu said that was correct and for the Department to have any contracts related to MIS it has to go through the City Store, COIT or DTIS and they have four or five pre-qualified contractors that have to be used and that work is subcontracted. Director Chiu said that this firm has other projects within the City as well, and when the firm filed for bankruptcy it affected a lot of agencies and a lot the work; this company did not pay the subs so now the subs have stopped working. Director Chiu said that as a result the projects that DBI were hoping to implement today are on hold and the City Attorney and the Controller's Offices are investigating and working with these various vendors to figure out how to proceed. Director Chiu said that many of the items that were raised by the Controller's audit were tied to MIS as they made recommendations that included improving the permit tracking system and enhancing a lot of the quality control areas. Director Chiu said that he would report back to the Commission when he hears more from the Controller's and City Attorney's Offices. President Fillon said that the critical piece of information that the Commission is going to want is if it turns out that they are in fault of their contract and the Department has to hire somebody else to finish, where the money is going to come from. Director Chiu said that he had already asked that question and that is what the Controller's and City Attorney's Offices are looking into. President Fillon said that the preferable solution would be that they pay for it. Commissioner Walker asked if there was a way to get an update from DBI's MIS Department as to where things stand as far as what is finished and what is unfinished.
Vice-President Hood asked what the name of the company was that went bankrupt. Director Chiu said that it was GCSI. Vice-President Hood said that she would like to propose another item for a future agenda and that would be to find out if there is any way that DBI could go ahead with its projects without having to work through the City's system since they have now struck
out. Director Chiu said that he has been meeting with both of the managers in DTIS and COIT to try and find ways to proceed with some of the projects that the Department really needs. President Fillon said that he thought that for that project the answer would be no. Director Chiu said that the Department might be able to cut the projects into very small items. Vice-President Hood stated that she had some ideas about that, as there are so many great people out of work in that area who are working as administrative assistants. Vice-President Hood said that there is an opportunity to use a bad situation to help out. Director Chiu said that he could ask the Controller's Office or DTIS to come and address the Commission as to what the Department could or could not do from this point on with other projects. Vice-President Hood said that this issue is related to the efficiency of staff because if the staff is expected to be more efficient they cannot be working with less enabled computers. Director Chiu said that he had Assistant Amy Lee speak to Ed Harrington to let him know that the projects that were supposed to improve DBI's operation hinges on this MIS issue. Director Chiu said that he would like to invite the DTIS Telecommunication's Director or a staff member to come and address the Commission, in response to Vice-President Hood's question, as to when the Department could go out and do a contract without going through the City. Director Chiu said that he had raised the question, but was not happy with the response. Vice-President Hood said that the Department was on track to get some things done and then the new regulations came in that everything had to be done through the City and that slowed things down. Vice-President Hood said that at one time, DBI was ahead of the rest of the City and with this larger group it slows things down.
4. Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
There was no public comment.
5. Review and possible action to recommend appointment of candidates selected by the CAC/UMB Appointment Committee to serve on the Code Advisory Committee or the Unreinforced Masonry Buildings Appeals Board.
President Fillon said that there were seven candidates who had been invited to come to the meeting and if they were present they could speak to the Commission. President Fillon said that today they were being introduced and the Committee made up of himself, Commissioner Santos and Commissioner D'Anne reviewed several applications and these were the candidates that they felt were the best qualified. President Fillon said that these candidates would be put forth at the next meeting and today was a chance for them to meet the Commission and answer any questions. Commissioner Marks asked if there was only one candidate for each spot. President Fillon said that the Committee did the sifting process and actually for many of the positions only one person applied. President Fillon stated that historically it has been very difficult to fill these positions and sometimes they are easy to fill, but the person does not show up to the meetings so there was a lot of emphasis to make sure that people who are appointed would actually show up to the meetings with a proper mind set in terms of their commitment to the process.
President Fillon invited the candidates, if present, to come forward if they wished to address the Commission.
a. Michael T. Fretz, to the CAC as the Small Project Civil Engineer
Mr. Fretz said that it looked like the cover sheet of his resume was missing from the handout. Mr. Fretz said that the missing information included the fact that he is a graduate of Santa Clara University and has a master's degree from U.C. Berkeley. Mr. Fretz stated that he currently works in the City of San Francisco for Biggs, Cardosa Associates, Inc. who have offices in Francisco and San Jose. Mr. Fretz stated that he is a resident of San Francisco and was asked to join the Code Advisory Committee by current member Nick Fennie. Mr. Fretz said that he is involved in large and small projects, wood frame and seismic retrofit projects, as well as due diligence reviews for building owners and lenders. Mr. Fretz said that he recently reviewed the Clift Hotel, Pier I and is looking at new construction in the Mission Bay area. Mr. Fretz said he is involved with smaller buildings such as the Cuma Building, which is next to the Flood Building on Market Street. Mr. Fretz asked if the Commission had any questions for him. President Fillon thanked Mr. Fretz and said that most likely appointments would be done at the next meeting.
Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walker that Mr. Michael T. Fretz be appointed to the CAC as the small project civil engineer. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 001-02
b. Nicholas Palter to the CAC as the Member-At-Large
President Fillon introduced Mr. Palter. Mr. Palter stated that he has been a resident of San Francisco since 1989 and lives in the City with his family. Mr. Palter said that he has been a practicing architect in San Francisco since even before 1989. Mr. Palter reported that he specializes in multi-family and single-family construction and in addition does residential remodels. Mr. Palter said that he has attended a number of the CAC meetings which is how he found out about the opportunity and is interested in the Building Code issues and feels he has a lot to offer because he uses the Codes everyday. Mr. Palter asked if there were any questions. Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to let Mr. Palter know how much the Commission appreciated his coming out to serve and said that it was wonderful to have someone who is so active in the City on this committee. Mr. Palter thanked the Commission.
Commissioner Santos made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D'Anne, that Mr. Nicholas Palter be appointed to the CAC as a Member-At-Large. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 002-02
c. Lee Yvonne Phillips to the CAC as the Disability Access Advocate
President Fillon asked Ms. Lee Yvonne Phillips to step forward. Ms. Phillips said that she has been a resident and practicing architect in San Francisco for the past 18+ years. Ms. Phillips said that she works exclusively on San Francisco projects, both large and small, but lately more large than small. Ms. Phillips said that she had attached a list of the projects that she has worked on with her resume. Ms. Phillips stated that she has been sitting in as a spectator at the CAC monthly meetings for the past four years and said that it has been fascinating and helpful to her in her professional career. Ms. Phillips said that she was looking forward to being able to vote and work in more detail with the Committee.
Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D'Anne that Lee Yvonne Phillips be appointed to the CAC as the Disability Access Advocate.
Commissioner Walker asked if the focus of Ms. Phillips experience is around disability issues in architecture. Ms. Phillips said that she has done a lot of work with Code compliance that involves accessibility issues in buildings that are in a lot of trouble with Code issues and accessibility issues. Ms. Phillips stated that she was the project architect on Glide's fifty-units of low-income housing and several low-income housing projects through the Mayor's Office of Housing, which have extensive issues, regulatory issues involving not only Chapter 11 accessibility, but FHA and ADA compliance. Ms. Phillips said that in general the projects that she works on have complex political and technical problems, accessibility is always one large component of it. Ms. Phillips stated that she has spent a lot of time with the accessibility community on all of these projects and has taken a very proactive roll in this area. Ms. Phillips said that when she attended the sub-committee meeting she was asked if she was interested in this appointment and said that she would be very much interested in this role. Ms. Phillips said that since the Chapter 11 has no San Francisco amendments it is not usually part of the Code development process for the Committee, however, from time to time issues come up and people from that community have concerns. Ms. Phillips stated that this has come up at the Public Advisory Committee meetings about the lack of a liaison person to deal with these issues and stated that she felt she could fulfill that role.
Commissioner Walker said that her only concern is that since this is a disability community advocate position; she would like to hear from that community their support of this position. Ms. Phillips said that she had an appointment with Mr. Skaff at the Mayor's Office on Friday to discuss this and said that she could have Mr. Skaff contact Commissioner Walker. Ms. Phillips said that when she decided that she would be interested in this appointment she went ahead and made an appointment to start talking with Mr. Skaff. Vice-President Hood said that she felt comfortable going ahead with the selection and stated that she was familiar with Ms. Phillips' work. Vice-President Hood said that Ms. Phillips has been a long time advocate for the disability community and stated that she felt Ms. Phillips could get people to speak to that issue. Commissioner Walker thanked Vice-President Hood.
Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by President Fillon, that Ms. Lee Yvonne Phillips be appointed to the CAC as the Disability Access Advocate. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 003-02
Commissioner Walker asked for clarification. Commissioner Walker asked if this vote was to nominate or appoint. President Fillon said that the vote was to recommend appointment and this would be confirmed at the next meeting. Commissioner Walker said that she still has concerns and asked if the questions she asked about the community giving input could still be addressed at the next meeting. President Fillon said that was correct.
d. Andre Rothblatt to the CAC as the Residential Project Contractor
President Fillon called on Mr. Andre Rothblatt. Mr. Rothblatt introduced himself as a practicing architect in San Francisco; a resident and native San Franciscan. Mr. Rothblatt said that he came to the meeting somewhat surprised that he was present as the project contractor as he is a practicing architect and used to be a contractor, but is currently just an architect. Mr. Rothblatt stated that he does mainly residential remodels in San Francisco. Commissioner Walker asked if there was a requirement of a contractor for that position. Vice-President Hood asked if Mr. Rothblatt did any projects in which he is the active contractor or if he still had a contractor's license. Mr. Rothblatt said that he did not have an active license. President Fillon said that when the Committee was reviewing Mr. Rothblatt's resume the contractor's experience was taken into consideration. Vice-President Hood said that it looked like the Commission would need to look at another candidate for this appointment. Commissioner Walker asked Mr. Rothblatt what position he thought he was applying for. Mr. Rothblatt thought that it would be as a member of the architectural community. President Fillon said that the problem with the CAC is that it is all architects right now and this is really a problem. President Fillon said that it was very difficult to get anybody but architects to apply as no contactors want to be on it and the fact that Mr. Rothblatt had the contracting experience was why he was chosen. Mr. Rothblatt said that he would be happy to fill that position and wear that hat, but he wanted the Commission to be aware that he was not a licensed contractor. President Fillon asked if the appointee had to be a licensed contractor. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that it would be a requirement and it would not be right to put somebody in that spot that was not doing that job. Commissioner D'Anne said that Mr. Rothblatt had past experience in that field. President Fillon said that Mr. Rothblatt had that expertise and that was the main reason the Committee recommended the appointment. Vice-President Hood asked how many years Mr. Rothblatt had been a practicing residential contractor. Mr. Rothblatt said that it was very brief, about two years. Vice-President Hood said that she would have concerns about appointing Mr. Rothblatt and said that she was sorry as the Commission was very thankful that Mr. Rothblatt was willing to serve, but the Committee would have to find someone else to fill this vacancy. The Commissioners thanked Mr. Rothblatt and offered apologies.
e. Livio Socal to the CAC as the Remodel Contractor
Secretary Ann Aherne reported that Mr. Socal would not be present at the meeting and stated that Mr. Socal was a retired contractor. Vice-President Hood said she felt it would be all right if Mr. Socal was retired as long as he retired as a licensee and had a career as a contractor. President Fillon asked if the Commissioners could find some contractors to apply as the Committee has done a lot of outreach and no contractors have applied. Commissioner Santos asked if President Fillon was suggesting that the Commissioners look for active contractors. Vice-President Hood said that she felt it was okay if Mr. Socal was retired if he had a career in contracting and was familiar with it. President Fillon said that the Commission was allowed, if an exhaustive search had been done, to appoint someone that the Committee feels would do a good job. Commissioner Walker said that she would like to get a reading of the Code. President Fillon
stated that he has done this before and knows that the Commission can do it. Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian said that the Commission could continue voting on this one until she researched the Code. President Fillon said that would be acceptable. Commissioner Marks said that her feeling would be, regardless of what the conditions are, that this person should meet the requirements. President Fillon said that if the Committee does not find someone who meets the ideal requirements and that slot remains empty then the Code Committee couldn't function. President Fillon said that all of the appointments needed to be filled. Ms. Boyajian said that she knew that the Committee could go outside of San Francisco if someone could not be found in the City, but did not think that the Committee could go outside of the requirements. Vice-President Hood said that she would call some of her contacts to see if she could recommend a candidate. President Fillon said that for the good of the Committee, the positions needed to be filled. President Fillon said that he thought that the Commission could vote on Mr. Socal. Vice-President Hood said that in looking at the resume Mr. Socal still writes on Socal Construction stationery and is a retired contractor.
Vice President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos that Mr. Socal be appointed to the CAC as the Remodel Contractor. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 004-02
f. Tony Thompson to the UMB as a Civil Engineer
President Fillon called on Mr. Tony Thompson. Mr. Thompson introduced himself as a registered civil engineer with ten years of experience in San Francisco; Mr. Thompson said that he lives in San Francisco and works for Santos and Urrutia Structural Engineers. Mr. Thompson said that he has done small and medium projects, residential and commercial, wood framing, concrete, and brick seismic upgrading. Commissioner Walker asked if Mr. Thompson worked for Commissioner Santos. Commissioner Santos said that was correct. Commissioner Walker asked if that was cool as far as conflict, etc. is concerned. President Fillon said that it was okay. Commissioner Santos stated that Mr. Thompson is extremely committed to cooperating with the duties as an appointee and has handled most of the brick, seismic upgrading in his office, as Mr. Thompson is a hands on engineer that has a tremendous amount of experience in the testing and preparing of structural documents. Commissioner Santos said that Mr. Thompson has been working with Santos and Urrutia for ten years as a licensed civil engineer and thanked Mr. Thompson for his acceptance of appointment to this Committee. Vice-President Hood said that she knew of Mr. Thompson and said that he was very involved in the charitable organization, Habitat for Humanity, and has helped poor people to realize home ownership. Vice-President Hood said that the UMB is a very challenging situation as many of the unreinforced masonry buildings have not been upgraded as quickly as they should have been, although the dot com boom helped a lot. Vice-President Hood said that she felt that Mr. Thompson would be a real asset to the group.
Commissioner Santos said that many UMB buildings had not been reinforced and this was something that the Commission should look into at a future meeting. Vice-President Hood said that it would be good for the Commission to meet with the UMB.
Commissioner Santos made a motion to nominate Mr. Tony Thompson to the UMB as a civil engineer. Commissioner Guinnane asked if there was a conflict with having Commissioner Santos nominate Mr. Thompson because he works for the Commissioner. Ms. Boyajian said that there was no financial issue involved so it would be okay. Commissioner Guinnane seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 005-02
g. Howard Zee to the UMB as a Civil Engineer
President Fillon called on Mr. Howard Zee. Mr. Zee introduced himself as a structural engineer, who is a native of San Francisco and a current resident. Mr. Zee said that he has experience in remodeling single-family homes from seismic retrofits all the way up to new construction with steel and concrete. Mr. Zee said that he has had the right experience in the Code development process and said that he looked forward to participating in this Committee. Mr. Zee said that he was interested in learning more of the non-technical aspects of the ordinance. Vice-President Hood said that she was delighted to see someone with Mr. Zee's experience apply for this position as he has worked on some very, very big projects of a great variety, which would be very helpful.
Vice-President Hood asked if the notice was correct and should Mr. Zee be appointed as a structural engineer. President Fillon said that there were two civil engineer appointments open. Vice-President Hood said that a structural engineer is at a higher level than a civil engineer so if Mr. Zee is a structural engineer he has the upper base covered.
Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Guinnane, that Mr. Howard Zee be appointed to the UMB as a Civil Engineer. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 006-02
At this time the Commission took a break.
The meeting reconvened at 3:00 p.m.
6. Discussion and possible action on the proposed budget of the Department of Building Inspection for fiscal year 2002-2003. [Taras Madison, Administration and Finance Manager]
Ms. Taras Madison introduced herself as Administration and Finance Manager. Ms. Madison said that she would give some background information and then go over the revenues as to where the Department is now and then go over expenditures. Ms. Madison said that if there were any questions, she would be more than happy to answer them.
Ms. Madison said that she would start with the budget schedule. Ms. Madison said that the budget was being presented to the Commission today and there were meetings scheduled for January 23, 30, and possibly February 6. Ms. Madison said that the budget is due to the Mayor's Office on February 20, and a preliminary budget would be submitted to the Board of Supervisors from the Mayor's Office and the Controller's Office on April 1 and May 31. The final Mayor's budget will be submitted to the Board and the budget should be adopted by no later than July 31, 2002.
Commissioner Walker asked about which meetings were Committee meetings and who was on the Committee. Secretary Ann Aherne said that the Committee members were Commissioner Marks, Vice-President Hood and President Fillon; the Committee would meet and decide whether future meetings were going to be Committee meetings or full Commission meetings. Secretary Ann Aherne said that the meeting on the 23rd had been changed to the 24th. Vice-President Hood asked what time the meetings would be. Secretary Aherne said that she believed they were scheduled for 9:30 a.m. President Fillon said that this issue would come up at item 11.
Ms. Madison said that similar to prior years, this year's budget is based on the Department's Mission, goals, objectives and some key strategic issues. Ms. Madison said that some of the things that the Department is focusing on would be things like increasing the public's access to DBI services; shoring up on efficiency and effectiveness of DBI services and that would include both fair and standard practices; ensuring that staff is appropriately and properly trained to meet the AB717 requirements. Ms. Madison said that there are a variety of things that this budget is based on. Ms. Madison stated that although there has been discussion about how the revenues are declining, the Department is still committed to going forward with the things that are important. Ms. Madison said that there are reductions in certain areas, but the Department is still assuring that it will do the things that the Commission, the staff and customers have identified as important.
Ms. Madison said that the proposed fiscal year 2002-03 revenues are based on current year actuals, so year to date actuals are $28M, which is a 16% decrease from what the budgeted revenues are right now, or the $33.2M which was actually budgeted for this year. Ms. Madison said that because the Department was conservative in its estimates for this fiscal year, it could have been worse, and DBI could have been looking at an $8M shortfall, as opposed to $5.5M. Ms. Madison said that last year the Department collected almost $37M, but only budgeted $33M this fiscal year. Ms. Madison explained what makes up the Department's revenues. Ms. Madison said that building permits and plan check revenues are the bulk of the revenues and what is happening is that the Department is not collecting the fees that were collected before. Ms. Madison said that in the next fiscal year, instead of collecting 43% of fees in the building permit revenues it is only projected that the Department will get about 39% and the same with plan check; it has gone down.
Ms. Madison said that in the budget packet, Attachment 1 showed the detail for the revenues. Ms. Madison said that the first item, which was 6115, building permits; this year it is budgeted at $14M out of a $33M budget. Ms. Madison said that although the budget is $14.4M, year to date including July through December, the Department has only collected $5M, which is not even half. Ms Madison said that as a result, the projection for next year is that the Department will only collect $11M as opposed to the $14M that the Department thought would be collected this fiscal year. Ms Madison reported that the second major revenue source for DBI is 61101 and that is the Plan Checking fees; once again, the budget is about $7.4M so combined with the $14M
and the $7.4M, that is about $21M or $22M out of a $33M budget. Ms. Madison said that when those revenues start to go down overall the other revenues cannot make up the difference and that is why there is a decrease. Ms. Madison stated that year to date for those revenues the Department has only collected $2.5M, which is once again less than one-half of the budgeted amount. Ms. Madison said that now the Department is projecting that only $5M will be collected which is $2M less than was budgeted this year for next year. Ms. Madison said that is how the Department came up with $28M.
Ms. Madison said that this situation is a Citywide thing as the Mayor's Office is projecting $175M budget shortfalls for the general fund this year. Commissioner Walker said that when Ms. Madison talks about other revenues being 43% for the next proposed year, she asked what those other revenues would be. Ms. Madison said that she was not actually talking about increasing those revenues, but because the revenues are going down, the remaining revenues will have to make up more of the deficit. Ms. Madison said that all other revenues would now
make up a larger share of the total revenue simply because the two major ones are going down. Commissioner Walker asked if there are any revenues that could possibly be increased, not necessarily by increasing fees for the services, but actually due to business. Director Chiu said that he has spoken with all of the Managers to let them know that the Department is looking for more ways to make sure that DBI gets its fair share of permit fees and handling fees as well. Director Chiu said that in response to Commissioner Walker's questions, yes that will be part of the way to make up for some of the losses. Director Chiu said that the other area of HIS and Code Enforcement would come up to approximately $4M. Ms. Madison said that last year for the apartment license fee the Department collected almost $1M over the budgeted amount and this year it was still budgeted at $2.9M even though the Department is hoping that the same thing will happen this fiscal year and that will give the Department some savings.
Commissioner Guinnane asked Ms. Madison to look at the revenues for 2002-2003 and said that there is roughly $28.17M and why are expenditures for $33.2M being put forth for the year. Ms. Madison said because those are the expenditures that are needed to run the Department and every year the Department submits a budget that is a little more than the expenditures and that is supplemented with fund balance. Ms. Madison said that there are some other cuts that could be made and those could be looked at, but when the Department completed the budget, this was the recommendation of what is needed at this point so it would have to be supplemented with some other sources.
Commissioner Walker asked if the numbers submitted were the results of talking with each department and then making some changes and cuts and said that the revenues are just down. Director Chiu said that was corrected and stated that he wanted to give a lot of credit to Taras and Amy for doing a much more extensive cut because a lot of the Managers were lobbying for more money, but Taras and Amy did a good job of making sure that this was realistic. Ms. Madison said that when she would get to the expenditures the Commission would see that almost $25M to $26M is salaries alone and even though there were no increases in new positions it still went up because of COLAs and MOU adjustments, but almost every single line item of the expenditures was reduced. Ms. Madison said that there is still a shortfall and said that there are other places to cut that could be looked at, but at this point nothing has been increased.
Ms. Madison said that on the expenditure side $33M was being proposed and that is actually a 4% decrease over what the current year fiscal budget is, but that is actually less than what the projected revenue shortfall is, so additional revenues will have to be found to support that. Vice-President Hood asked if the Department had a savings account somewhere as in past years the Department has collected more money than expenditures. Ms. Madison said that there were several accounts such as a deferred credit account, but the money in that account, although the Department has actually collected the money up front for the permits, technically it is not money that has been earned. Ms. Madison stated that most of the money that has been earned, especially over the last two fiscal years, because most of the revenue came from major projects valuing over $300,000, although the Department may have collected over $1M up front only 1/3 of that has been earned in that fiscal year. Ms. Madison said that right now there is a very low fund balance budget and another deferred credit report is due to move some funds to the fund balance budget and that would be the amount needed, but it would not be nearly enough. Ms. Madison said for example, there is about $18M in deferred credit, but there is no way that the Department could move that much money because the fees haven't been earned. Ms. Madison said that the Department has to be really tight with the budget and cannot just supplement it with whatever. Vice-President Hood asked if it was possible that some of those fees were for projects that have been permanently abandoned. Ms. Madison said that she was going to be meeting with the Controller's Office on that issue because part of the reason that so much money is in deferred credit, and the Department hasn't been earning a lot, is because the methodology established with the first report is kind of shaky. Ms. Madison said that basically the Department just looks at what is completed and what is issued, however, if something was issued last year and it isn't completed until next year, the Department doesn't capture that one-third that should have been captured in this fiscal year. Ms. Madison said that the Department was going to go back and look at that; if something expired and didn't get completed, it is just sitting there. Ms. Madison said that she felt confident that the Department would be able to earn some of that money. Commissioner Guinnane asked if a project pays x amount of dollars to the Department and doesn't go forward for the abandonment, is the Department obligated to give back a percentage of that money if the project manager requests it. Director Chiu said that the plan check fee is never refunded, but within a certain period with the building permit fee if someone requests a refund, the Department will refund a portion of the inspection fee. Commissioner Guinnane asked what the timeline was and what was the percentage of the fee to be refunded. Director Chiu said that within the Code he believed that it was within one year that the project sponsor could ask for a refund if they were no longer going to proceed with the project; 100% of the plan check fee would be kept, but there is only a portion of the inspection fee that could be kept. Director Chiu said that he did not have that information in front of him. Commissioner Guinnane said he just wanted to know if there were a number of abandoned projects and a large amount of money, if it was legal for the Department to keep it. Director Chiu said that if the money is requested in a timely manner, then the Department does not get to keep everything. Director Chiu said that as an example if there were a fifty story high rise building and the Department did the plan check for it and issued a building permit fee, then six months from now the project sponsor decided that they no longer wished to proceed, they could ask for a refund within a year. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the Director was sure about the one year. Director Chiu said it was one year from the permit expiration. Commissioner Guinnane said that there could be a permit that was thirty-six months then the project sponsor could go twelve months after the thirty-six months. Commissioner Guinnane asked what the longest issuance
time was on a permit. Director Chiu said four years. Commissioner Guinnane said that then it would be twelve months after the four years, so it becomes five years. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that in the $18M there were some that were more than five years old. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would like to know the percentage. Director Chiu said that from his experience it is very rare because the project sponsor does not want to cancel the permit completely if the time is still there because they want to bank hoping that the economy will turn around because once a permit is cancelled 100% the project has to be started all over again. Director Chiu said that people don't want to go through the process. Ms. Madison said that this is just one area that will be looked at. Ms. Madison said that she thought that identifying those projects that aren't quite complete in the fiscal year could capture more money, but the Department has still technically earned some of those fees. Commissioner D'Anne asked if the money was left in an interest bearing account. Ms. Madison said that it was.
Ms. Madison said that the work orders are about $3M and that is the one thing that the Department does not know ahead of time when preparing the budget. Ms. Madison said that there are a number of City departments that provide a service to DBI, and for that service fees have to be paid, but normally the Department does not get the actual amount for the next fiscal year until after the process is started. Ms. Madison said that she is just beginning to get the work order requests from departments that provide service to DBI. Ms. Madison said that the amount that is included now is just a basic $2.7M and that number could go up or down depending on what is going on with the work order requests. Vice-President Hood said that she would presume that this would be one area where the Department would be looking for savings to see if the work orders could be put off for another year or perhaps not done at all. Ms. Madison said that the Department was trying to work with these other departments to look at DBI's current year actuals to make sure that DBI is using the money that was budgeted. Ms. Madison said that for some items there will be some reductions, for others there may be some slight increases because sometimes DBI is actually paying staff costs for something so DBI has to eat the COLA and those sorts of things. Ms. Madison said that for the big work orders the Department is looking at what the current year actuals are and stated DTIS as an example. Ms. Madison said that with DTIS the Department is reducing the number of pagers and cell phones that the Department has, so at least the telephone bill should go down. Ms. Madison said that she is working with various Departments right now.
Ms. Madison referred to the summary of the budget. Commissioner Guinnane said that he had about eleven questions for that page. Ms. Madison asked if the Commission wanted her to go over the summary. Commissioner Guinnane said that she should continue. Ms. Madison said that the spreadsheet showed the information by sub-object, shows fiscal year 2000-2001, the current year and then the proposed budget for 2002-2003 and then the last column is actually the change between this current year and next fiscal year. Ms. Madison said that everything that started with 081 are monies that are given to other City departments and since she had not received a lot of detail it was just left as current. Ms. Madison said that salaries have gone up by 6% by just annualizing those new positions from last year and the MOUs and the Cost of Living. Ms. Madison said that training has gone down a lot, but as previously stated training is very important to the Department in order to meet the AB717 requirements. Ms. Madison said that the Department has been able to reduce training dollars, but still meet those requirements. Ms. Madison said that a lot of in-house training has been done over the last two years and many of
the inspectors and technical personnel have already met their requirements. Ms. Madison referred to entertainment and promotion and said that is going down, but the Department is still committed to doing the brown bag lunches and working with other jurisdictions. Ms. Madison said that she wanted to stress that although things are going down, the Department is still trying to think strategically and still trying to address key issues that everyone identified as important. Ms. Madison said that the details were in Attachment 3.
Commissioner Walker asked if Ms. Madison could talk about premium pay and overtime and why if the Department has such a deficit that kind of spending is being proposed. Commissioner Guinnane asked if Ms. Madison could just finish her presentation and then take questions. Ms. Madison said that premium pay has only gone up by 3.5% and that is just the COLAs because certain people get premium or standby pay, and there is nothing that the Department can do about this. Ms. Madison stated that the Department wants to make sure that there is enough money budgeted because if a person is a certain classification they get that premium pay for being on standby. Ms. Madison stated that overtime has been decreased back to the fiscal year 2000-2001 level, but it hasn't been decreased completely because if those same people that are on standby pay are actually called out to a mudslide or some other emergency, that is the way they are paid; the premium pay is just that little extra that they get in their pay check because they are on standby. Ms. Madison said that once they work the hours then it goes to overtime. Commissioner Walker asked if these funds were part of MOUs. Director Chiu said that premium pay also covers bilingual pay. Ms. Madison said that some clerks get word processing pay. Director Chiu said that structural engineers get additional pay as well. Vice-President Hood asked if this meant that these people cannot go out of town in case there is an earthquake and they have to be available. Director Chiu said that those people who are assigned to respond to an emergency have to be available. Vice-President Hood said that it would be like doctors on call.
Ms. Madison said that travel was reduced by 62% and the way that was reduced was by instead of sending two or three people on a trip, only one person would be going. Ms. Madison said that some of the conferences have been eliminated. Ms. Madison said that she already discussed training, but DBI has work orders with DTIS for computer training and DHR for other types of training, so the Department is only going to focus on in-house, or City sponsored training to meet those other needs. Ms. Madison stated that membership fees have also gone down because prior to this fiscal year the Department may have had several people join organizations and now the Department is trying to have Department representation rather than have everyone become members.
Ms. Madison said that the major reason for the decrease in professional services, which makes up a large part of the budget, is because of the decrease in DTIS professional services contracts. Ms. Madison said that the Department had a contract for technical assistance when it changed over to the computerized cash registers and that is out now because there have not been that many problems and the company can be called on an as needed basis.
Ms. Madison said that other current expenses have been decreased and the main reason is because right now DBI is covering the convenience fee of credit cards and there was about $200,000 budgeted for that. Ms. Madison said that given what is going on now the Department felt that it is not prudent to continue to cover this cost. Commissioner Guinnane said that he believed that DBI was the only agency in the City that is doing that and asked who authorized this procedure. Commissioner Guinnane said that if someone pays their property taxes to the Assessor's Office, the Assessor's Office charges a fee of 2% or whatever their cost is. Commissioner Marks said that she previously aired her concerns about this as she thought it was too high a number for the Department's budget, but said that Commissioner Hood felt that for the convenience of those people who take out the permits, the Department had to permit them to use a credit card versus a check. Commissioner Marks said she still personally felt that this was too much money to absorb. Vice-President Hood said that she did not recall saying that and stated that she thought that if there is any additional expense as a result of using a credit card the person using the card should pay it. Commissioner Guinnane said that he felt that this policy should be changed immediately. Commissioner Walker asked if the Department was not recovering this cost and was just eating these expenses. Vice-President Hood said that she did not think that there were that many people who paid by credit card. Director Chiu said in answer to Commissioner Guinnane's question, the person who made the decision not to pass the credit card expense onto the customer was himself because at the time the Department's revenue was high. Director Chiu said that a lot of the politicians were asking that the Department find ways to reduce the fees and rather than reducing permit fees one of the easiest ways to reduce revenue was not to charge for the credit card fees. Director Chiu said that last year under the direction of the Commission, the Department opted not to go for the higher surcharge fee for the building. Director Chiu said that this year because of the economy the Department is going to go back and reinstate those two fees. Commissioner Walker said that if people wanted to use credit cards, the Department could charge them for the cost. Director Chiu said that was correct. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the amount was $275,000. Ms. Madison said that actually the amount was $250,000. Ms. Madison said that it had gone up to $300,000 because when the Department first started taking credit cards it did not know that it would catch on so quickly and people were paying by credit card for huge permits. Ms. Madison said that the Department had only set aside a certain amount and within two or three months it looked like that amount was not enough and in order to make sure that funds were available the Department put aside another $250,000. Ms. Madison stated that this is no longer a problem given that revenues are down so proportionately credit card fees have gone down, but right now in the budget as it stands, the Department is at $854,000; now the Department can recapture that $200,000-$250,000 and use that for some other purpose. Commissioner D'Anne asked if there was a benefit to using a credit card such as less accounting services. Commissioner Guinnane said that the benefit would only be to the applicant. Commissioner D'Anne asked if the Department incurred any benefits. Director Chiu said that this practice was started to deliver customer service and if everyone used credit cards there would be less bounced checks. Director Chiu said that when the Department had a lot of revenue and was looking for ways to reduce the fees this was doable, but now the Department has to make sure to get its fair share. Vice-President Hood said that she wanted clarification and asked if when someone pays with a credit card at a restaurant or anywhere the person who gets that has to pay a 2% fee to the credit card companies. Commissioner Walker stated that this is a reason why some businesses have minimums because it doesn't make sense to them financially to do a deal under $10.00. Vice-President Hood said that she was not aware that the cost was so high. Commissioner Guinnane said that going back on the comment on bounced checks, he had a hard time buying off on that because if a customer takes a permit out, pours the foundation and the check is bad an inspector is sent out and the job is shut down. Commissioner Guinnane said that it is over and done with and this is a non-event. Director Chiu stated that there were a few cases where the Department was not able to recover the costs and said that he was not saying that
bounced checks is a big issue, but this was discussed in making the decision to use credit cards. Director Chiu said that he felt that the Board of Supervisors and Harvey Rose, the Budget Analyst, was constantly talking about DBI making too much money and pushing for the Department to reduce the fees. Director Chiu said that the Commission's direction was not looking to reduce fees, but was looking at ways to balance the revenue and the expenditures. Director Chiu said that, at the time, the Department did not know how much the credit cards would be used. Vice-President Hood asked if it could be said that if people want to use credit cards they have to pay 2% more. Director Chiu said that it depends on the types of credit cards that they use and the Department is simply going to charge the customer based on whatever the vendor is going to charge the Department. Commissioner Guinnane said that at one time he made an inquiry through the Assessor's Office and to pay a $14,000 property tax bill, it was going to cost him, using a credit card, a little more than $700 on top of the initial bill. Ms. Madison said that the credit card fees range from about $1.57% to 2.9% and it depends if it is a Master Card commercial or American Express. Ms. Madison said that a lot of retailers would not take American Express because it is 2.2% across the board. President Fillon said that the
reason the Department instituted the credit cards initially was to make it easier for applicants. President Fillon said that the Department had the money and had not provided this service before so the high cost was not anticipated. President Fillon said that now that the Department is looking at cutting costs anyway possible, it makes sense that the Department cannot afford to subsidize the public any longer. President Fillon said that he was in favor of offering the service as long as DBI was not subsidizing the public with it. Vice-President Hood said that she felt the same way and stated that in the past the Department had the funds to do it, but now the applicants will have to cover the cost and some people may be willing to do this. Commissioner Walker said that the Commission could not make a decision on this at the present time. President Fillon said that the Budget Committee was going to be meeting and said he would hope to get a list of concerns from all of the Commissioners to be addressed during the Committee meetings and then come back to the full Commission and discuss it again.
Director Chiu said that a memo was drafted on February 1, 2002 stating that the Department was no longer going to be subsidizing the credit card fee so the Department is already going to cut this service off.
Ms. Madison said that the final item of materials and supplies is being reduced by 40%. Ms. Madison said that the Department was at a high of $900,000 when computers were being replaced and the Department was buying a lot of tools and safety equipment; this fiscal year the amount is down to $400,000 and next fiscal year it is being reduced again, almost in half. Ms. Madison said that over the past two years the Department has purchased many needed items and in terms of other City departments, DBI is better off, because the Department has had the luxury of being able to do a lot of things in prior fiscal years. Ms. Madison stated that the Department will feel the belt tightening, but will still be able to operate.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he wanted to start with permanent salaries and given the declining revenue wanted to know why isn't the Department moving to delete unnecessary positions. Commissioner Guinnane said that he had one example that he has been asking about for a long time, the Public Information's Officer. Commissioner Guinnane asked what this employee was currently doing at the Department and stated that he believed that this person's
salary was $80,000 - $90,000.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he had questions about numerous high paid positions in plan checking and asked if the Department could consolidate some of the districts to cut down on some of the inspectors. Ms. Madison asked if Commissioner Guinnane was talking about plan checking. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was a lot of expense in plan checking and also out in the field with the actual Building Inspectors; could the Department consolidate some of those areas to eliminate a couple of those positions. Ms. Madison asked if Commissioner Guinnane was referring to vacant positions or filled positions. Commissioner Guinnane said that he was not referring to vacant positions and asked if Director Chiu could respond to his questions. Director Chiu said that he has met with the Managers and the Department is looking for ways to trim in as many areas as possible. Director Chiu said that the Department is in the process of reorganizing not only Plan Checking, but the Districts as well and one of the challenges the Director has imposed to the Deputy Directors and the Managers is to not only look at the temporary people, but permanent staffing as well to make sure that the workload and the
revenue reflects the expenditures. Director Chiu said that the workload is still there as far as the numbers of activity, and it is true that revenue is down. Director Chiu stated that there are a number of permanent positions that are vacant and if the Commission is concerned this issue could be talked about on a monthly basis to talk about operations and to determine if vacancies need to be filled or not. Commissioner Guinnane said that earlier temporary positions were discussed and it was mentioned about cutting ten positions. Commissioner Guinnane asked how cutting ten temporary positions was going to close up the gap of $5M. Director Chiu said that it could be done by attrition because several people are going to be retiring or leaving and those positions do not have to be filled; these positions could be kept in the budget, but not filled. Commissioner Guinnane said that the temporaries were brought in because the Department had a heavy workload and now the workload is dropping. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he was confused because there are so many employees, and said that he felt the Department was top heavy in management, there were temporary employees, revenues are way down and yet nobody was getting laid off. Commissioner Guinnane said that there was something wrong with the picture. Director Chiu said that the numbers of permit activity was still high as there is only a 2 - 5% decrease so the projects are still there even if the jobs are smaller. Director Chiu said that he would agree with Commissioner Guinnane that the revenues are down by 37% and the Department needs to find other ways to cut and said that he agreed that the Department should look at permanent salaries.
Commissioner Guinnane said that looking at the budget for the City Attorney, if the Department is cutting back in this area, he wondered why more money was being budgeted. Commissioner Guinnane said that the fees to the City Attorney should be decreased. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he did not believe that the Department was getting bills in a timely manner and that is something that had been requested. Ms. Madison said that the amount in the 2002-2003 budget for City Attorney's fees is only a placeholder because the actual work order has not been received. Ms. Madison said that many items such as DTIS and the City Attorney would still have to be negotiated. Ms. Madison said that it is difficult to make projections because many times the Department does not have what the current year actuals are. Ms. Madison said that normally the Department makes projections on actuals, but given that actuals for a lot of given things are not available; the Department cannot make those projections. Ms. Madison said that hopefully these
amounts will go down, but for now all she could say is that all of the work orders are based on what is currently budgeted on this fiscal year and then DBI has to work with the other departments. Ms. Madison said that hopefully that would be done before the meeting on the 30th so that she could come up with a better estimate. Ms. Madison said that she would be talking to the City Attorney's Office to get that information.
Commissioner Guinnane asked what the process was with the work orders and who balances all of that; is it the Controller's Office? Ms. Madison said that with the work orders, the department that performs the service would send DBI a bill estimating how much they think DBI should pay for their services. Ms. Madison said that then the Department negotiates with each department and then at the end it is balanced by the Controller's Office and the Mayor's Office.
Commissioner Guinnane asked what maintenance and operations was and what is the Department paying for as the amount went from $131,000 up to $280,000. Ms. Madison said that is what DTIS charges DBI to help maintain the computer system with things such as e-mail,
and FAMIS. Ms. Madison said that this is the amount that DTIS said was needed as there was a rate increase and DTIS also projected that DBI needed additional monies. Vice-President Hood asked what DTIS stood for. Ms. Madison said that it is the Department of Telecommunications and Information Systems. Vice-President Hood asked if this was the outfit that just went out of business. Ms. Madison said that it was a City run department, as were all of the 081 line items.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about the amount for telephones. Ms. Madison said that the amount has not gone up from this year to next year, but went up from last year to this year, and now it is holding steady. Ms. Madison stated that she was expecting this amount to be reduced because it is based on the actual telephone system and last year there was a lot of moves. Ms. Madison said that it costs a lot of money to move people and last year people moved from 1660 to 1650 and this amount is based on pagers and cellular phones. Ms. Madison said that given the fact that there won't be that many moves this year, actually no moves, and the number of pagers and cellular phone have been reduced, this number should go down.
Commissioner Guinnane asked about the item of $100,000 for environmental. Ms. Madison said that was something that was established at the end of the budget year and was set up, given that the Department does building and construction that the Department should contribute to things that help with the Department of the Environment. Ms. Madison said that she was not sure if that was a one-time cost or if it is ongoing. Ms. Madison said she included the amount, but was going to speak with someone at the Department of the Environment to find out exactly why that would be expended. Commissioner Guinnane asked who agreed to or authorized that expenditure. Director Chiu said that it was added by the Controller's Office or the Mayor's Office when they were creating the Environment Departmental and were looking for departments that would have any impact or work required. Director Chiu said that he questioned this item and stated that recently this department merged with the Solid Waste Department. Director Chiu said that he had asked Assistant Director Lee to look into why DBI should be doing this now that they have merged with a larger department.
Commissioner Guinnane asked why DBI was paying for police security in the amount of $100,000 and who agreed to it, as Commissioner Guinnane said he never remembered anything
coming before the Commission on this. Ms. Madison said that was another item that was established later in the budget season and basically there were some problems with security and traffic and those sorts of things around major projects and it was felt that because DBI issues the permits the Department should help pay for some of those things. Commissioner Walker said that these were the kinds of items that could be included in looking at increasing the fees. Vice-President Hood said that this was just something that the Mayor wanted and because DBI had excess funds the Department chipped in, but in fact, it is not related to DBI work at all. Commissioner Guinnane said that this needed to be cut because $100,000 to direct traffic around a job should be charged to the project sponsor. Commissioner Walker said that in looking at the budget process, who should be responsible for determining the cost of that stuff. Commissioner Guinnane said that this should have no bearing at all on DBI and should be charged to the private sector; if the Department issues a building permit the project sponsor should hire their own people to direct traffic. Commissioner Guinnane said that he did not see any police officers directing traffic downtown. Vice-President Hood said that this is not what DBI's fees are for and said that she thought that a lot of these things such as Rec and Park, Real Estate and the Tax Collector are add ons. Commissioner Guinnane said that they should be eliminated.
Commissioner Guinnane said that he had a few more items and asked what the amount to DPW, environmental regulation was for or was it for health and safety. Director Chiu said that it was health and safety. Ms. Madison said it was health and safety and partly what is happening is that there is a health and safety officer that DBI work orders funds to for help with different health and safety items. Commissioner Guinnane asked what they do for DBI and why is this Department paying for it instead of the Public Health Department. Ms. Madison said that they are doing things specifically for DBI such as identifying which inspectors have to go and have certain types of tests. Director Chiu said that this is a requirement that every department has and now DBI is cutting this off because the Department has its own safety officer. Director Chiu said that in the past DBI came from DPW and did not have a position to fill these requirements; DBI was paying DPW to do this service and now recently DBI hired a safety officer and Director Chiu said that he and Assistant Director Lee had talked about cutting this item. Vice-President Hood asked if this was like OSHA and was to prevent people from getting carpal tunnel syndrome or sitting in the wrong chair. President Fillon said that it was not that much money. Commissioner Guinnane said that last year DBI gave DPW almost $300,000 to assist in street sweeping and asked why the Department was doing that. Ms. Madison said that the bulk of the money, $150,000, given to DPW was for the GIS project and the rationale behind that was that DBI would be using the GIS system by the inspectors and the plan check personnel. Ms. Madison said that a lot of the items in the budget are citywide functions and someone will look at it and determine which departments will make use of it and those departments are charged. Vice-President Hood asked what the GIS system was. Ms. Madison said that it is the Graphic Information System, which is a citywide mapping system. Vice-President Hood said that it is supposed to download neighborhood maps for any particular project. Director Chiu said that it was a citywide map that the Fire Department, Police Department, Public Works, Planning and DBI would use for many purposes. Director Chiu said that this project has been dragging on for years and DBI has been paying part of this project for a long time. Director Chiu said that recently he raised concerns about when it is going to end. Vice-President Hood asked if the system was actually functioning because she said that she still sees people copying maps out of books. Director Chiu said that it is not 100% functional. Vice-President Hood said that she would wonder if there are people who are getting checks and not actually doing anything. Ms. Madison said that this was one item that was being eliminated for next year. Commissioner Guinnane said that he could not figure out why there was $45,000 allocated and then it goes to $150,000 and now it is eliminated. Commissioner Guinnane said that the Department is talking about a $5M shortfall and some action needs to be taken as there is money running out the door like there is an open tap. Commissioner Guinnane said that it appears to be non-stop and the Department is not tied into the General Fund, and stated that he felt there was a lot of mismanagement and money was just being wasted because money was there to be thrown away. Commissioner Guinnane stated that he felt that some serious action had to be taken and some drastic cuts had to be made.
President Fillon said that he would not say that it was because of mismanagement, but would say that it was because the Department had a lot of money to spend so it was being used for positive things and now the Department is in the position that it needs to cut back as much as possible. Commissioner Walker said that a lot of these items were added in after the Commission approved the budget. Director Chiu said that he would not say that a lot of items were added in and in taking a look at the budget for fiscal year 2000-2001 some of these have already ended. Commissioner Walker asked if things like the environmental costs and some of those things that got put back on because the Department was using the services, were put on by DBI or after the budget was approved by the Commission. Director Chiu said that sometimes the Department's arm got twisted, before and after.
Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to know what the item titled reproduction included. Ms. Madison said that was the cost for all of the Department's brochures and forms. Ms. Madison stated that there was a City ordinance that after a certain number of copies a Department was not supposed to make copies at the copy machine, but was supposed to send it out. Ms. Madison stated that there is a separate City department that does all of the large-scale printing. President Fillon said that this category went from $70,000 to $135,000 and said that it made a certain amount of sense that the Department should be able to go back to the lower number because if the Department was able to function the year before on that level why can't it be done again. President Fillon said that he saw this in a lot of the categories. Vice-President Hood said that the workload was higher back then. President Fillon said that obviously if the Department is very busy there is going to be a lot more reproduction services required especially if it includes copies of plans. Director Chiu said that Commissioner Guinnane asked about the Tax Collector. Commissioner Guinnane said that he did not ask that question. Vice-President Hood said she had asked about it. Director Chiu said that the amount paid to the Tax Assessor's Office is to help the Department collect the apartment and hotel licensing fees for HIS.
Vice-President Hood asked about the revenue transferred to Real Estate. Ms. Madison said that amount included several things, but the bulk of it is because last year the Department lowered the surcharge; however, the Department was scheduled to send an additional amount to pay for the building and given what the revenues were going to be the Department was only going to collect $1.7M, but $1.7M had to be paid for debt service on the building. Ms. Madison said that the Department had to take $550,000 from the surplus funds to pay for that. Ms. Madison said that was actually something, where once again, the Department was subsidizing the customer instead of increasing the fees to actually cover the entire debt payment. Ms. Madison said that the other portion of the amount is maintenance and other services performed in the building; Real Estate
manages the building and hires the cleaning crew for 1660 Mission.
President Fillon asked if mandatory fringe was for employee benefits. Ms. Madison said that was for benefits. President Fillon said that would be untouchable. Ms. Madison said that it goes up and down with permanent salaries. President Fillon asked what was covered under professional services. Ms. Madison said that was for all of the Department's contracts. Ms. Madison said that in the past it has been primarily MIS contracts and at one time the CAPSS program was included in that amount. Commissioner Walker said that there was a sheet included in the package that listed the contracts. President Fillon asked if it were possible to put any of those contracts on hold for a year or two if they were not absolutely necessary. Ms. Madison said that the Department could look at the contracts and said that $300,000 was for the Code Enforcement Outreach Program. Commissioner Marks said that this program has been discussed previously and stated that she felt that was an important program. Commissioner Walker said that there are some tenants that rely on these programs.
Commissioner Marks said that there were many questions being raised, but said that she felt that the Committee and the full board would look at DBI division by division and what services are being provided and what really is essential. Commissioner Marks said that she did share Commissioner Guinnane's concern that in theory if the workload is down then the Department is less in need of all of the positions. Commissioner Marks said that she did not want to eliminate permanent positions and it would be better if the Department could downsize by attrition, but each division should be looked at to see what they are doing for the money.
President Fillon said that Commissioner Marks' question leads into a question he had about overtime. President Fillon said that there should not be so much overtime needed if there wasn't as much work and why can't the work be done during regular hours. Ms. Madison said that the overtime has been reduced, but there are a couple of reasons why the Department will always need an overtime budget. Ms. Madison said that if the workday is from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but it is required that there is coverage until 5:30 p.m. then that person gets overtime; another reason that overtime was left in the budget is because of standby pay. Ms. Madison said if something happened and someone was required to go on call for an emergency the Department would have to actually pay them overtime. Director Chiu said that this issue was raised many months ago regarding high-rise buildings that need life safety testing and it is almost impossible to shut down the office to do the testing during the workday or weekdays so this is done off hours. Director Chiu said that it is almost mandatory that the Department does this kind of inspection during off hours either on weekends or after 5:00 p.m. Director Chiu said that the project sponsor pays for most of those costs and a lot of the overtime is recouped from the people who request the inspections. President Fillon said that if a project sponsor has special requirements on timing then they should pay for it. Director Chiu said that they are paying for it. Vice-President Hood said that it should be determined if this is paying for itself.
Commissioner Guinnane said that one item, Controller payroll, had been eliminated and asked for an explanation. Ms. Madison said that the $200,000 had been eliminated in this fiscal year as prior to this fiscal year DBI was not on the City's TESS system that is the citywide personnel, payroll time tracking system. Ms. Madison said that DBI had to work order funds to the Controller's Office who had a contract with an outside agency to do those things for DBI. Ms. Madison said that now DBI has its own computer system so that contract is not needed any longer. Ms. Madison said that began in this fiscal year.
Commissioner D'Anne said that she had a question on mailings and asked if people were given the option to get their mail via e-mail when the Department is sending out notices or booklets. Commissioner D'Anne said that there might be people who would prefer to receive this information via e-mail or have it posted on the website rather than physical paper mail. Ms Madison said that right now, particularly with things that are required, the Department sends it through the mail and sometimes things are sent via certified mail to make sure it is received, as there are legal requirements. Ms. Madison said that is one of the reasons that the mailing is so expensive because it is not just a $.34 stamp because if the mail requires notice, the Department has to be certain that a particular person or business has received the mail. Ms. Madison said that this is done mainly in CPB and Housing Inspection. Commissioner D'Anne said that as a general rule for items that are not required certified some sort of policy should be established to ask people how they would like to receive mailings to cut back on paper use and stamps, etc. Ms. Madison said that she was not sure about that, but for the most part, most of DBI's mailings are required and the Department does not send out mailings for FYIs. Ms. Madison said that she would have to check with the people that do the mailings to find out if e-mail is an option. Ms. Madison asked Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian if the Department could send out notices via e-mail. Ms. Boyajian said that the Code requires mailings for notices.
Vice-President Hood thanked Ms. Madison for her presentation and said that she hoped that Ms. Madison understood that the questions and any sort of irritation that she heard from the Commissioners was by no means directed at Ms. Madison.
President Fillon said that he would like to clarify that the bottom line is that the Department is $5M short. Ms. Madison said that the Department is $5.5M short. President Fillon said that he thought that the Department could find a lot of fat in the budget and said that he would rather find it in non-employee places. President Fillon said that even with cuts the budget should maintain the essential services for the Department to perform its duties without losing positions and stated that he would like to save as many as possible. President Fillon said that is what he would like to accomplish in the Budget Committee and stated that he would like to hear from staff before the Committee meeting about places where money could be cut, such as professional services that could be delayed and any miscellaneous items. President Fillon said that maybe there could be reduction of some things and not doing away with programs, but cutting a little from various places so that it would add up to a substantial savings.
Commissioner Walker said that she would like to add that the Committee and staff should look at whatever costs are related to DBI's cost of doing business and make sure that it gets factored to the Department's fee schedules. Commissioner Walker said that in the past the Commission had made decisions not to include certain items as part of the fees when times were better, and maybe now the Department needs to make sure that everything is charged back that can be. Director Chiu said that he agreed and stated that he had a meeting with all of the Managers and asked them to find ways to cut and trim and also to come back with ways to recoup costs. Director Chiu said that he planned to meet with the Mangers frequently to make sure that the Department is doing the right thing. President Fillon said he felt that there was such a discrepancy in comparing the budgets because the Department went from one extreme to the other and that is
really at the bottom of this situation. President Fillon said that he did not think that it was about management or bad decisions, but the Department had a lot of money and there were a lot of positive things that DBI wanted to do with that money so the Department committed to doing those things. President Fillon said that now the Department has to rethink those commitments because the Department is now looking at going back to essentials. President Fillon said that this is something that the Department has to do and felt that it is something that was brought about by circumstances largely beyond the control of people in the room. President Fillon said that if any of the Commissioners would like to submit some ideas in writing, through the Secretary, for the Budget Committee meetings, the Committee would consider those concerns at the meetings. Vice-President Hood said that she would like the staff to look at the $18M future services fund as this is a really big gap to close, 14% of the $35M budget, and look to see if more revenue could be found to help cover some of these stop gaps because some of them are things that cannot be stopped for this year. Ms. Madison said that the Department had already started to look at ways to generate revenue and even though DBI paid other departments for services, DBI also receives money from other City departments to provide a service and that is about $150,000; surplus funds would be another and salary savings would also be a source of revenue. Ms. Madison said that although the Department has not proposed any actual cuts in positions, just from leaving positions vacant would yield the Department about $1M in salary savings; however, other things would have to take place such as positions being vacant and a reduction in temporary salaries and a reduction in a variety of things. Ms. Madison stated that the way the budget works is that everything rolls up to salaries so if the Department goes up in overtime or temporary salaries that would eat up what the savings would be in permanent salaries. Ms. Madison said that the Department reduced the surcharge fee and that resulted in a $550,000 shortage and the Department needs to look at reinstating that. Vice-President Hood asked what the surcharge fee was for. Ms. Madison said that there is a surcharge fee on the debt payment for 1660 Mission Street. Director Chiu said that it is for the purchase of the building. Commissioner Guinnane asked if the surcharge was 3.5%. Ms. Madison said that it was 3.5% and was scheduled to go up to 4.5%, but instead the Department left it at 3.5% and ate the 1%. Director Chiu said that it was because there was a lot of pressure for the Department to reduce the fee by 4% or 5% and the Department was reluctant to reduce the fee because once the fee is reduced it is tough to go back and increase it. Director Chiu stated that the Department was looking at another way to reduce the fee by changing a policy that could easily be reinstated such as the surcharge fee or the credit card fee. Commissioner Guinnane said that he would submit all his questions to Director Chiu for answers and places where he felt the Department should be cutting. President Fillon said that the Committee would be meeting the following Thursday and asked if any questions could be submitted to Secretary Ann Aherne or Director Chiu so that the Department would have time to do any research.
Commissioner Marks said that she would like, as the Commission has done in the past, to look at the Department's activity division by division. Director Chiu said that the Department had a quarterly and annual report that lists all of the activities and said that he would be happy to provide that as the information is in the annual report. Commissioner Marks said that for example if the Department is saying that by not filling certain positions $1M would be saved, if in fact the Department knows that they are not going to fill one position and would save x number of dollars, the Commission should still know what effect it is going to have on the Department. Commissioner Marks said that she still felt that the Commission should look, like
with zero base budgeting, at a division to see what services they are providing and what dollar amounts are involved and compare it with the workload of that division for the coming year versus the past year. Commissioner Marks said that there may be changes of focus for that unit or responsibilities may change.
Commissioner Guinnane asked if the shuttle service was still going to happen. Director Chiu said that the status is that the Department has abandoned the project as of now because DHR and the Civil Service Commission has requested and required that the Planning Department do an EIR which means that it will take another two or three years for anything to happen. Commissioner Guinnane asked if it needed to be put in front of the Commission to reverse the vote that was taken at the last meeting. Vice-President Hood said that it has already been stopped. Secretary Ann Aherne said that if the Commissioners would look at the agenda item for communications received there is a letter from Assistant Director Lee that was written about the shuttle service. President Fillon asked if there were any other questions about item #6. Director Chiu said that he wanted to thank Taras Madison for doing a great job.
Commissioner Guinnane left the meeting at this point.
7. Update on Litigation Committee Meetings. [Commissioners Guinnane, Santos and Walker]
Commissioner Walker said that the Committee is continuing to meet monthly and going over this issue with Department staff. Commissioner Walker said that things are going really well. President Fillon said that now would be a good time to settle some cases. Commissioner Walker said that there is the matter of money that has been settled and the Department is just waiting for collection. President Fillon asked if there were any cases on the horizon that might come into play with the budget shortfall. Commissioner Walker said she thought so. President Fillon asked how much money was available. Commissioner Walker said that the Committee was trying to weed out a big long list that the Committee started with and trying to figure out which cases are active and which ones aren't. Commissioner Walker stated that the Committee had not settled any major cases that they were not aware of, but there are some out there that have complaints filed against them. Vice-President Hood said that she felt that every single City department was going to be looking to increase their revenues so it is going to be hard to get them to cut down on what they are spending and they are probably looking at layoffs too. Commissioner Walker asked what department Vice-President Hood was talking about. Vice-President Hood said she was talking about the City Attorney's Office. Vice-President Hood stated that if DBI had a lighter caseload for the City Attorney's Office then the attorney bill should be less. Commissioner Walker said that the cases that can be won, the City Attorney's Office is more than happy to pursue because both departments get their money back. Commissioner Walker said that there has been a big list that needed to be reviewed because that Committee did not meet for a long time and it is complicated to get updated on all of the cases. Secretary Ann Aherne reported that the meetings are getting shorter. Commissioner Walker said that the Committee was originally meeting for three to four hours and now the meetings last for an hour or two and all of the cases are in different stages of negotiation between the City Attorney, staff and the project sponsors. Commissioner Walker said she felt that a lot has been accomplished.
8. Update on Unlawful Demolition Committee meeting. [Commissioners Hood, Santos and Walker]
Vice-President Hood said that initially a joint meeting was scheduled with the City Planning Department for January 24th and in speaking with the Zoning Administrator, Larry Badiner, that date had been set contingent upon the Committee meeting with a number of neighborhood groups over the Christmas holidays. Vice-President Hood said that it turned out to be impossible to schedule those meetings for reasons, which are probably obvious as neighbors do not meet over the Christmas holidays. Vice-President Hood said that the Committee is going ahead with the neighborhood meetings, but the joint meeting will have to be rescheduled. Vice-President Hood said that the Secretary has scheduled the meetings and the Committee will be letting the Commissioners know when those are going to be held so the Commissioners could attend. Vice-President Hood said that Commissioner Walker was going to be attending a meeting in the Sunset. Vice-President Hood said that as soon as the meetings have been held with the neighbors the Commission would then have the joint meeting. Vice-President Hood stated that the working group was continuing to meet and a meeting would be held on the 18th at 9:30 a.m.
9. 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.
a. Thank you letters received from the public commending DBI employees and Director Chiu's response letters to the public.
b. December 17, 2001 letter from Assistant Director Amy Lee to Kate Favetti of the Civil Service Commission regarding request for cancellation of Civil Service Contract No. 4046-0102, commuter shuttle contract.
President Fillon asked if there were any communication items listed that any of the Commissioners wanted to discuss.
Commissioner Marks said that she wanted to say something about the shuttle service and stated that she could not believe the controversy that it has created and the Planning Department asking that the Zoning Administrator review it as a requirement considering that the City has a transit first policy. Commissioner Marks said that it is in the record that the Construction Center parking is no longer going to be available to the Department and said that she just did not understand what the origin of the controversy is. Commissioner Marks said that this is just a total waste of time. Director Chiu said that he would agree with Commissioner Marks and stated that in his opinion the Civil Service Commission exceeded their authority as they were supposed to make sure that the contract that DBI was about to award met certain standards, not to raise the issue about whether or not there was a need for the shuttle. Director Chiu said that DBI staff went three different times and the Civil Service Commission felt that this was not necessary and DBI was just giving staff perks that other departments don't receive. Director Chiu said that the Civil Service Commission directed DBI and Planning to redo the study. Director Chiu said that the irony was that Larry Badiner was the one who made the determination ten or fifteen years ago as a staff member and now has to go back and review what was originally imposed. Director Chiu said that he was as frustrated as the Commission. President Fillon said that he felt that it was very
sad and the employees are the ones that are suffering for it, but did not see that there was anything that the Department could do about it. Vice-President Hood said she felt it was another example of how one department in government wipes out another, but it happens to work well for the budget.
10. Review and approval of Minutes of the BIC meeting of December 5, 2001.
Vice-President Hood made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walker that the minutes be approved. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 007-02
11. Review Commissioner's Questions and Matters.
a. Inquiries to Staff. At this time, Commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the Commission.
b. Future Meetings/Agendas. At this time, the Commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a Special Meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Building Inspection Commission.
Commissioner Walker asked for the Secretary to review the items that Commissioners had mentioned in the meeting. Secretary Ann Aherne said that there were items mentioned about valuation, the fee structure, an update of the MIS Department regarding what projects had been finished and what was still outstanding. Vice-President Hood said that she wanted to review what the Department could contract for separately rather than going through the City system. Secretary Ann Aherne said that was mentioned and the Controller's Office was included; another item was having either the Controller's Office or DTIS attend a meeting to do a presentation on that issue. Vice-President Hood said that she wanted a discussion about the various fees DBI pays to departments such as the Police Department. Secretary Ann Aherne said that would be discussed during the Budget hearings. Vice-President Hood said that other departments would be trying to stick DBI with items this year, as DBI has money compared to other departments in the City and DBI would be viewed as flush.
Commissioner Marks said that she would like an update on the Controller's Office audit of the Department's performance as the Controller's Office had offered to assist the Department in the issue of conflict of interest, favoritism and the permit expediter issue. Commissioner Marks stated that she knew that the Department has been working closely with the Controller's Office and said that she would like an update on what has been happening. Commissioner Marks said that secondly, the Commissioners had been given a draft memo about referring professionals to the licensing board, if they have the three strikes, and it was going through a review process. Commissioner Marks said that she would like an update on the status of that issue.
Secretary Ann Aherne asked if the Commission could decide on the next meeting. It was decided that the Budget Committee would meet on Thursday, January 24, 2002 in Room 416 at 10:00 a.m. and the Budget Committee would then decide if a meeting was needed on January 30, 2002.
12. Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
There was no public comment.
13. Adjournment.
Commissioner D'Anne made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Walker to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 008-02
The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.
_______________________
Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary
SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS
Agendize Marshall and Swift Valuation Schedule for next meeting. - Director Chiu Page 2 & 28
Agendize DBI's fee structure. - Vice-President Hood Page 5 & 28
Report from MIS as to status of projects; what is finished and what is still pending. - Commissioner Walker Page 5 & 28
Director Chiu to invite the Controller's Office or DTIS to address the Commission on MIS related subjects. - Vice-President Hood Page 6 & 28
Commission to set future meeting with UMB - Vice-President Hood Page 10
Update on the Controller's Audit - Commissioner Marks Page 28
Update on issue of referring professionals to the licensing board and the review process. - Commissioner Marks Page 28