Building Inspection Commission
BUILDING INSPECTION COMMISSION (BIC)
Department of Building Inspection (DBI)
Wednesday November 7, 2001 at 1:00 p.m.
City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 408
Adopted December 5, 2001
MINUTES
The meeting of the Building Inspection Commission was called to order at 1:20 p.m. by Vice-President Hood.
1. Roll Call - Roll call was taken and a quorum was certified.
COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
Alfonso Fillon, President, excused
Denise D'Anne, Commissioner
Bobbie Sue Hood, Vice-President
Esther Marks, Commissioner
Roy Guinnane, Commissioner, absent
Rodrigo Santos, Commissioner
Debra Walker, Commissioner
Ann Aherne, Commission Secretary
D.B.I. REPRESENTATIVES:
Frank Chiu, Director
Amy Lee, Assistant Director
Jim Hutchinson, Deputy Director
William Wong, Deputy Director
Sonya Harris, Secretary
1. President's Announcements.
Vice-President Hood stated that she had no announcements.
3. Director's Report. [Director Chiu]
a. Update on Board of Supervisors' Audit, Labor and Government Efficiency Committee hearing to consider the Controller's Audit of the Department of Building Inspection, and policy changes at the Department.
Director Chiu said that item #3 was to inform the Commission that two weeks ago there was a Board of Supervisors' Audit, Labor and Government Efficiency Committee meeting to hear the Controller's Office audit report of DBI and essentially the Committee went over the status as to where the Department is in terms of the recommendations that were made by the Controller's Office. Director Chiu said that the session went well and stated that Supervisor Newsom commended the Department for some of the customer services' areas and Supervisor Chris Daly had concerns similar to those of the Commissioners regarding the favoritism survey results. Director Chiu said that the Committee went over the status of each item of the audit, not in detail but in general, to let the Supervisors know where the Department is in addressing the concerns raised by the audit report. Director Chiu asked if there were any questions from the Commissioners or the public. Vice-President Hood asked if there was anything that the Department or the Commission needed to do as a follow up. Director Chiu said that the Department is continuing to work with the Controller's Office to follow their recommendations and said that there were a few items where the Department disagreed with the Controller's Office. Director Chiu said that Supervisor Newsom asked about those areas; Director Chiu said he reported on the few areas where there was disagreement.
b. Update on status of construction at property adjacent to 174 Brewster Street as requested by Commissioner Santos.
Director Chiu said that at a previous meeting Commissioner Santos had asked about the status of a project next to 174 Brewster Street. Director Chiu said that he recalled that this particular item came up several months ago and the concern was whether the property was built within the property lines; staff investigated that and requested that a surveyor examine the property. Director Chiu said that the surveyor's results showed that the property was built according to the property lines. Director Chiu said that the last inspection of this property at 182 Brewster was on September 20th of this year for the sheetrock nailing inspection, and that indicated that the project was well within compliance and on its way to completion. Director Chiu asked if there were any other questions. Commissioner Santos said that he had questions in terms of a few concerned neighbors that spoke on the placement of 174 Brewster as it related to the property line. Commissioner Santos said the neighbors mentioned that the project sponsor had given them several issues relating to the placement of that building and property line issues. Commissioner Santos said he was wondering that if the building at 174 Brewster was set in accordance with the set back condition, does this building next to it, which happens to be set much farther in, fall under a different survey or would it be part of this survey. Director Chiu said that the Building Department's concern is to make sure that a building is built within the property line and if that is how the plans were approved by the Planning Department then DBI's role is very limited, but if they did build beyond the property line, then DBI would have a great concern with the set back of the building. Commissioner Walker said that was the question when Commissioner Santos brought this subject up; he wanted the Department to double check that everything was okay. Director Chiu said the Department did check. Vice-President Hood said that the Planning Code, as distinct from the Building Code, requires that the building average with the two buildings on each side so if one of them was all the way up to the property line and the other was set back ten feet, then the building in question should be set back five feet. Vice-President Hood said that Director Chiu should check with Planning to make sure that nothing slipped by if they didn't realize how the other two buildings were set. Director Chiu said that he did request that the project sponsor hire an additional surveyor and the Department checked the situation out and verified that the project sponsor was building within the property line. Director Chiu said that the project is on its way to completion. .
c. Report and Discussion on DBI's policy regarding determination of unsound structures.
Director Chiu said that regarding item #3c he had been requested by the Planning Commission to address their concerns about DBI's policy regarding unsound structures. Director Chiu said that fifteen or twenty years ago the Planning Department was concerned that affordable housing was being displaced or demolished; within the Planning Code at that time the only way that a building could be demolished was if the property had serious violations and was found to be unsound. Director Chiu said that this policy carried over for many years and when a project sponsor would apply to have a building demolished, the Planning Department would request that DBI staff go out and investigate the property. Director Chiu said that he did not know how DBI got dragged into looking into the economic issue as well, but the project sponsor would hire an engineer and a contractor to estimate or demonstrate that in order to fix the violations it would cost more than 50% of the replacement cost. Director Chiu said that this information would then be used to request Planning to approve the demolition. Director Chiu said that recently the Planning Commissioners have had concerns about this practice and have raised issues; as a result Planning Director Gerald Green has asked Director Chiu to look at the policy. Director Chiu said in reviewing the policy, two years ago he remembered that the subject came up when Bob Passmore was the Zoning Administrator and at the time it was determined that since the Planning Code no longer had that provision, DBI did not want them to follow that procedure. Director Chiu said that somehow Planning never responded to his concerns and then the practice carried on anyway. Director Chiu said that now that it has been brought to his attention he did not believe that DBI should be doing something for Planning purposes. Director Chiu said that DBI's role is strictly to be concerned with safety issues and building conditions and DBI should not be trying to write memos, make recommendations or try to determine conditions that have anything to do with economics, but should just stick with the code violations. Director Chiu said that if Planning then asks what the Department thinks about a structure, the Department should focus on its expertise and just list all of the violations and let it up to Planning as to whether they should be approving a demolition permit or not. Director Chiu said that currently or previously the Department sort of drafted a memo for the project sponsor to say that the Department believed that to repair the property would be greater than 50% of the replacement cost. Director Chiu said that he was just letting the Commission know that since the Planning Code no longer has this provision, he did not feel comfortable to continue performing the existing process. Commissioner Walker said that this sounded like one of those issues where it might be helpful to work together between Planning and DBI. Commissioner Walker said that she thought that just as far as process, regardless of whether DBI is responsible for evaluating or not, it is part of the process of demolitions and is something that might be discussed with the Unlawful Demolition Committee. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that it was a somewhat different kind of issue, as she understood it. Commissioner Walker said that it was evaluation and having criteria. Vice-President Hood said that if she understood Director Chiu, he was saying it was not a question of the Building Department because it has licensed civil engineers who can go an inspect the building and tell the corrections that need to be made to conform to the Code in ten different ways as they are trained and licensed to do that. Vice-President Hood said that the engineers could make a list of them, but the problem is when it comes to attaching a value to those corrections or a value to replacement there is no expertise in the City anywhere. Commissioner Walker said that there is no process for doing that either. Vice-President Hood said that there is a process because when the Building Department needs an independent evaluation, for example an audit, they hire auditors to do an independent evaluation or they hire contractors. Commissioner Walker said that currently what happens is the project sponsor submits an engineering report that substantiates the project sponsor's position. Vice-President Hood said that was correct and they hire a cost estimator to put a number on that. Commissioner Walker said that the problem within the City process is that no one, either within Planning or DBI, can substantiate that or wants to. Director Chiu said that the Department could review the cost estimate could agree with the estimation, but stated that the reason he wanted to bring this issue to the attention of the Commission is that the role of DBI particularly in doing inspections, and the Planning Commission's role is different because the Building Code always strives to meet the current Building Code to make the building safe; if there is an existing building with a violation the new work must comply with the new Code. Director Chiu said that the Planning Code could say that DBI is not advocating for demolition, but are always concerned about making the building safe. Director Chiu said that in no way, even though the Department sends the letter out saying that the cost exceeds 50% of the replacement cost, does the Department want to get blamed for saying that the building should be demolished. Director Chiu said that the ultimate decision rests with the Planning Department. Director Chiu said that recently people in the Planning Commission are saying that DBI is making the determinations and Director Chiu said that he did not want to be in that position because there is a real conflict. Commissioner Walker said that the Commission has the intention to meet as a joint body with the Planning Commission and this is one of those areas that could be discussed, as there are a lot of areas where the project sponsors have to work in tandem with both departments. Commissioner Walker said that there should be a more clear process and delineation; the BIC should sit with the Planning Commission and say that DBI should not be doing something because it really is a Planning issue and work on suggestions as to how to facilitate the issues so DBI doesn't end up doing things that the Department is not comfortable with. Commissioner Santos said that these unsound reports are invariably questioned. Commissioner Santos said that anytime he works up a quote he likes to have his partner sign it because they are absolutely controversial. Commissioner Santos said that anytime an engineer writes a report there will be a neighbor who will hire another structural engineer who will say that it costs a lot less to replace the building and the issue is criteria. Commissioner Santos said that it is not clear if the report is talking about bringing a building up to current codes and demolishing a building that may have been built in accordance to the Codes at the time it was built. Commissioner Walker said that this is a Planning issue. Commissioner Santos said that this is a huge difference because 90% of the buildings that may be found in some neighborhoods are founded on concrete foundations with no reinforcement, which doesn't come close to meeting current Code, but met the Code at the time. Commissioner Walker said that this was a Planning issue. Commissioner Santos said that he met with Hanson Tom of DBI on one particular project that was so controversial and there were so many people involved in it, including Mr. Steve Williams who unfortunately only got 19%; the issue was that they needed to step back and hire a structural wise man, maybe Shapiro, Keno and Holmes, John Holmes, the oldest and most experienced structural engineer, have him write a report and have him come up with a price. Commissioner Santos said that there was no possibility of coming to some sort of number, but to get a third party, someone who has absolutely nothing to do with this project and have them write a report and now the parties are waiting for that report. President Hood said that she did not think this was really the issue; the issue is really not a Building Code issue. Commissioner Walker said that this is what she is saying; it is a process issue. Vice-President Hood said that the Building Code could only evaluate; the issue is a Planning Code issue and the Planning Code question is that they should establish criteria for saving buildings or for defining when they want to save those buildings because it can always be proved that a building needs to be torn down. Vice-President Hood said that this could always be done if a building is more than twenty years old as the codes change enough, and the building costs have been going up. Vice-President Hood stated that she would guarantee that it could be proved. Vice-President Hood said that the Commission does not need to talk about this, but the Commission just needs to have the Planning Commission deal with it and then tell the BIC what buildings they want to save. Commissioner Walker said that, as she previously stated, those are the kind of things that when the two Commissions meet together the BIC should be pushing on Planning. Commissioner Walker said that by meeting with the Planning Commission in person, the BIC could say that this is an issue that the BIC is aware of and would like Planning to deal with because it is a Planning issue. Vice-President Hood said that she thought this issue could be brought up as sort of a passing reference in the current Committee to deal with major alteration and so forth. Commissioner Walker asked if it was relevant. Vice-President Hood said that if the Committee considered every possible ramification of that Code, there would never be closure. Vice-President Hood said that she would suggest that the Committee only point out that it has got to be done and that the Commission would be happy to, when the Planning Code wants to sponsor it, provide input through the Director of DBI. Vice-President Hood said that she did not think that there were any issues that were not clear from this Commission's point of view as Director Chiu put them very well. Vice-President Hood said that the reality is that the issue of demolition and major alteration permits that is being discussed, there is much more work to do, but the way that the Committee is going these problems should be diminished because people are going to be able to make clear their repairs to buildings. Vice-President Hood said that she thought that the real issue is transient hotels. Vice-President Hood stated that people want to demolish the cheapest housing in the City and want to build regular hotels and that is a Planning issue. Vice-President Hood said that San Francisco is very good at handling that in their Democratic process with the Planning Commission. Vice-President Hood said that there are all kinds of rules as someone cannot tear down a housing unit, period, in this City without a conditional use; period; one cannot be torn down. Commissioner Walker said, technically. Vice-President Hood said, at all. Director Chiu said that he appreciated Commissioner Walker's comments reminding everyone that a joint meeting is planned and perhaps this issue could be addressed. Director Chiu stated that he wanted the Commission to know that he will be called upon at a future Planning Commission meeting, probably November 16th and said that he wanted to let the Planning Commission know that this is not a Building Inspection issue, but DBI would be happy to assist on the technical issue only. Director Chiu stated that it would be a good idea for the two Commissions to resolve this policy issue, which is a Planning issue. Commissioner Walker said that she was not in disagreement that it is a Planning issue, but said that this gets so confusing and the best way to deal with it is when the BIC is sitting down talking about it amongst each other rather than pointing fingers as to who is actually responsible.
Vice-President Hood asked if there was any public comment on any of the Director's items.
There was no public comment.
4. Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
Assistant Director Lee stated that she was not present to make public comment, but to make a request on behalf of the Department. Ms. Lee said that, as the Commission knows, she has been working with her staff to provide shuttle service for the employees to comply with the variance that was set out for the Department when it originally moved to 1660 Mission. Ms. Lee said that unfortunately she was having difficulty getting approval from the Civil Service Commission as they have raised numerous concerns. Ms. Lee said that she has done her best to explain to the Commission, but what the Commission would like to see is a letter from the BIC stating that the BIC supports providing this service. Ms. Lee stated that she did give the Civil Service Commission copies of minutes from past meetings where she reported on the progress of getting the contract approved. Ms. Lee said that she explained that the Commission does not approve DBI's budget by line item and that this item was included in the Department's budget that was approved by the BIC. Ms. Lee said that she would like to get a letter, perhaps from the President or whoever, by the next hearing as it would be very helpful. Vice-President Hood said that the Commission would be happy to do that and asked if Commissioner Marks, since she was active in the Budget Committee, to be a co-signor of the letter.
5. Presentation from the Department of Public Health regarding Operation Self Reliance, a campaign to enlist disabled people and frail seniors in the DPH disaster Registry and in the free Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) training offered by the San Francisco Fire Department. [Mr. Ron Lopez]
Mr. Lopez thanked the Commission for allowing him to make a presentation and introduced himself as being on the payroll of the Department of Public Health. Mr. Lopez said that he was paid to do community disaster preparedness and stated that he had been on board with the City since June of 1996. Mr. Lopez said that he was the Manager of a program called the Disaster Registry Program for Seniors and people with disabilities. Mr. Lopez said that operation self-reliance is a campaign that is going to begin on December 3rd and continue through December 8th or 9th. Mr. Lopez stated that he was before the Commission to request three things, one being a resolution in support of this campaign and stated that he would be giving the Commission some background in his presentation. Mr. Lopez said that each of the Commissioners would be getting individual written invitations from his department to participate in whatever manner they could as it is important to the media campaign that is covering operation self-reliance. Mr. Lopez said that he would also request that each Commissioner at some point, don a yellow NERT cap, a NERT hard hat and an orange vest and hold themselves out as examples to the public as City leaders working toward doing what needs to be done as a community in San Francisco to deal with current national state of affairs as well as local implications. Mr. Lopez said that the background was that the Public Health Department, emergency communications 911, the Fire Department and the Police Department are receiving lots and lots of phone calls and communications via e-mail from the public that tell them that there are people who feel helpless because they don't know what to do or where to go for help that they may need. Mr. Lopez said that these people say that there is a Governor who tells them that terrorists are going to blow up the bridges and a national media that tells them that there are a lot of domestic emergency problems and these people don't know where to turn. Mr. Lopez said that this is the summary, but there are two programs that are in affect right now; the disaster registry program which is basically a database maintained by the Public Health Department for Seniors and people with disabilities who are going to need help in the event of a local disaster are registered with the Health Department. Mr. Lopez said that this is done in combination with the Neighborhood Emergency Response teams that are trained by the Fire Department. Mr. Lopez stated that these are citizen volunteers trained in all of the skills that are going to be necessary for an earthquake, a tsunami, a terrorist attack, etc. Mr. Lopez said that this is called multi-hazard preparedness. Mr. Lopez said that these teams are trained and there are about forty-six teams of them in the City; 65% of them are trained to go out and retrieve printed, hard copy lists that are at specific Fire Stations throughout the City and kept under lock and key to maintain confidentially, and on their own, under the conditions of self-activation like the ground shaking, they will pick up these lists and go out into the communities at the neighborhood level to start checking on people. Mr. Lopez said that these programs are in effect right now, but said that the problem is that there are only about 2,400 registrants in the database. Mr. Lopez said that the demographics of San Francisco show that in the Senior and disability communities there should be well over 35,000 - 50,000 people in this registry. Mr. Lopez said that these are people who are elderly who may have a disability, who live alone without support systems, and may be shut ins and the program has over 9,000 people trained as neighborhood emergency response teams. Mr. Lopez said that he was connecting the dots and said that the program was going to have weeklong activities beginning Monday, December 3rd and going through that Friday, which will include outreach registration tables. Mr. Lopez stated that Community based organizations would be participating in this outreach and on the weekend of the 8th and 9th they are working to get hundreds of volunteers to fan out in neighborhoods including George Washington High School. Mr. Lopez referred to the flyer he had passed out to the Commission that had been prepared the previous week and said that originally the outreach was going to take place the coming weekend, but interest had grown so big that the department had to regroup and change the dates because there is so much interest coming from different points throughout the Bay Area. Mr. Lopez said that he would close by saying that any support the BIC could give to this effort would be appreciated as the Department of Building Inspection is one of the key Commissions. Mr. Lopez said that he would be making a presentation to the Fire and Health Commissions and was trying to get all of the Commissions on board for this effort. Mr. Lopez said that he wanted to thank one of DBI's most dedicated and professional employees, Zan Turner, for working on the Disaster Registry Taskforce. Mr. Lopez said that his department could see the value of the BORK, and DBI in turn sees the value of the disaster registry and ultimately everyone is in this together.
Commissioner Walker asked if Mr. Lopez was asking for the Commission to do a resolution supporting the program. Commissioner Walker asked if this could be done without being on the agenda. Deputy City Attorney Judy Boyajian said that it could be done at the next meeting. Commissioner Walker asked that this be included on the next agenda. Commissioner Walker said that she would personally do whatever the program needed. Mr. Lopez thanked the Commission and said that he would be sending all of the Commissioners an invitation with a calendar of events. Mr. Lopez said that he could spend money and time with a PR firm, but having one of the Commissioners in front of a local TV affiliate camera wearing a NERT hat and saying that this is something that needs to be done would be very valuable. Mr. Lopez said that he really appreciated the Commission's help. Vice-President Hood asked if Mr. Lopez needed a resolution. Commissioner Walker said that this would have to be done at the next meeting. Mr. Lopez said that he understood that this would be an agendized item that the Commission could act on. Vice-President Hood asked if people could call Mr. Lopez to sign up as volunteers. Mr. Lopez said that the program was coordinating with the San Francisco Volunteers Center as well as an internet based volunteer matching group called volunteermatch.org. Mr. Lopez said that they would list, probably by Friday, all of the volunteer positions that need to be filled. Mr. Lopez said that he would give the Secretary details about two websites where all the information is listed with downloadable forms that could be printed out at someone's house. Mr. Lopez said that there were two particular websites, the NERT and the ACS, the Auxiliary Communication Service, which are the City's radio ham operators who work with Luke Hantock, the Director of the Office of Emergency Services. Vice-President Hood asked if Mr. Lopez knew any reason why people who are handicapped or frail have not signed up with this program and asked if they were afraid that they were going to get on some blackmail list. Mr. Lopez said that was part of the reason, but the main reason was that there is only himself, a technician to enter the data and one Local Area Network Administrator in the Health Department that are running this program. Mr. Lopez said that he needs a full time public relations and outreach coordinator just to get into the communities. Mr. Lopez said that was part of the problem and another component of the problem is that there are a lot of communities where English is a second language and there are issues involved with community preparedness and having that being appropriate to specific ethnic characteristics. Mr. Lopez said that a case in point was Chinatown, especially among the older generation, where there is a cultural belief that to prepare for a disaster is to invite it or to put a disaster kit in a home is to bring evil spirits to that home. Mr. Lopez said that he has been working with elementary and high school kids who understand the need to get the community prepared. Mr. Lopez said that there are other issues of coordination and now he has volunteers coming out of the woodwork. Mr. Lopez stated that he had a volunteer public relations person, Lauren Sarnow, who is a published journalist and has been featured on KQED Radio and the PBS station here in San Francisco. Mr. Lopez said that Ms. Sarnow was featured two weeks ago and talked about every citizen's need to be trained and know their place to know how to do what they are going to need to do and to assume, correctly that government under bad conditions, isn't going to be there for three to five days and that it is going to come down to the citizens to do the training. Mr. Lopez said that this happened completely independent of anything that he was working on, but he just happened to be listening to his radio at home and said that he immediately knew he had to find out who this person was. Mr. Lopez said that Ms. Sarnow is now acting as the program's public relations full time volunteer. Mr. Lopez said that this is just an example of the kind of support that this program is getting. Vice-President Hood said that it sounded like a great program and thanked Mr. Lopez for coming before the Commission. Commissioner D'Anne asked if the program had been in contact with the Senior groups throughout the City such as Senior Action Network. Mr. Lopez said that he had made a presentation to the Commission on the Aging and said that he was going before the Fire Commission and drafting a letter in coordination with Mr. Rorer, the Executive Director of the Human Services Department and would be going in front of that Commission and also his own Health Commission. Mr. Lopez said that these were the key groups, but given the limited amount of time and resources he was hitting all of the high points such as the Department of Building Inspection and the BIC.
6. Discussion and possible action to appoint President Fillon as an alternate to the BIC's Unlawful Demolition Committee. [Vice-President Hood]
Vice-President Hood said that President Fillon has expressed an interest in attending some of the Demolition Committee meetings as he is an architect and is very interested in this issue. Vice-President Hood said that what she thought would be good would be to have an alternate in the event that one of the Commissioners on the Committee could not attend then President Fillon could step in and take the place of that person. Commissioner Santos said that he would support that as he felt that some of the momentum of the wonderful wish list has been lost.
Vice-President Hood asked for a motion.
Commissioner D'Anne made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos that President Fillon be an alternate on the Building Inspection Commission's Unlawful Demolition Committee. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 061-01
Commissioner Marks said that there had not been a meeting of the Sub-Committee in quite some time even though the Commissioners received notes from the working group's meetings and asked if a date had been set. Vice-President Hood said that those notes are even now being constantly revised. Vice-President Hood said that the meeting is set for November 30, 2001 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and the Secretary would be notifying people about the meeting. Vice-President Hood said that the Committee got bogged down because the smaller kind of working committee, or the larger one as it turned out to be, was very close to the Planning Department was very active and now they have gone full cycle and it has grown, and grown, and grown. Vice-President Hood said that now the Committee was looking to narrow it down to make sure that it is still meeting the original objectives. Vice-President Hood stated that it became so inclusive that it did not deal with issues that the Committee set out to solve and so she was hoping to meet again on November 30th to have something from the BIC Committee and secondly nighttime meetings will be scheduled for taking what the Committee has to further groups in the neighborhood. Vice-President Hood said that she would discuss that, but now it was scheduled for December 19th. Vice-President Hood said that she knew this was a terrible time because of Christmas, but it was the one night that Larry Badiner could come. Vice-President Hood said that she would not go into any more detail as this was getting off of the agenda, but she did not want the Commission to think that this issue had stopped. Vice-President Hood said that the issue had to go through this growing process and now it is getting refocused. Vice-President Hood stated that people representing various points of view have been very active.
7. Discussion and possible action to set new goals and objectives for Director as adopted under the Pay for Performance Program.
a. Public Comment on all matters pertaining to the Closed Session.
b. Possible action to convene a Closed Session.
c. CLOSED SESSION: Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957 and the San Francisco Administrative Code Section 67.10(b). Director of the Department of Building Inspection - Mr. Frank Y. Chiu
d. Reconvene in Open Session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions
held in Closed Session (Administrative Code Section 67.10(b).
Vice-President Hood asked for any public comment on the matters pertaining to the Closed Session. There was no public comment.
Vice-President Hood asked for a motion to convene to Closed Session.
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Santos that the Commissioners convene to Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 062-01
The Commissioner convened into Closed Session at 2:50 p.m.
The Commission reconvened in Open Session at 4:00 p.m.
Vice-President Hood announced that no action was taken during Closed Session.
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Marks not to disclose discussion that took place during the Closed Session. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 063-01
8. 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.
There was no discussion on the Communication Items.
9. Review and approval of the Minutes of the BIC meeting of October 3, 2001.
10. Review and of approval of Minutes of the BIC meeting of October 17, 2001.
Agenda Items #9 and 10 were carried over until the next meeting as there was no quorum of Commissioners present to approve the minutes.
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.
Vice-President Hood said that she had an inquiry and wondered after watching the terrible events of September 11th, how the Department would respond to an emergency with respect to an attack on a building or public structure. Vice-President Hood said that she knew that there were procedures in place for things like an earthquake, but asked if this could come up in the form of a report. Director Chiu said that this issue had been raised by various staff members and said that he would be happy to respond back to the Commission. Vice-President Hood said that she would like this report to include coordination with the police or any volunteer groups such as structural engineers or architects that would be doing inspections. Vice-President Hood said that making sure that the communications function in the event of that type of problem would be important. Director Chiu said that on September 11th because DBI is part of the Emergency Response Team, he was requested to report Immediately to the emergency center to stand by to see if staff needed to respond in any way. Director Chiu stated that he would report back as to what the Department is already doing and what it plans to do. Vice-President Hood said that she would like the item to include the ability to make a motion if the Commission thinks of something they would like to add to whatever the Department's response is now.
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 D'Anne said that she would like Director (sic) Richard Rovetti to clarify the type of work his Department is charged to perform and why it is necessary for the Department to hire outside contractors to do what his job is supposed to be doing. Commissioner Marks said that he did not have a department. Commissioner D'Anne said she wanted an answer in relation to his position as a Director (sic). Director Chiu said that Mr. Rovetti did not have the title of Director. Director Chiu said that initially Mr. Rovetti had a Special Assistant's position and citywide all of the Special Assistant's positions were changed to the title of Manager. Vice-President Hood asked if Mr. Rovetti were the Mayor's Liaison Officer. Director Chiu said that Mr. Rovetti works for DBI and part of his job is to help with the UMB compliance program, the public records act and to represent DBI with press releases. Director Chiu said that he did not want to say that Mr. Rovetti's job was only to be a PR person. Commissioner D'Anne asked if Mr. Rovetti had staff that reported to him. Director Chiu said that no one reported to Mr. Rovetti. Vice-President Hood said that Mr. Rovetti took David Serrano-Sewell's previous position and Mr. Serrano-Sewell handled press releases and things like that. Director Chiu stated that Rich Rovetti has additional responsibilities. Commissioner Marks said that she wanted to expand on what Commissioner D'Anne was saying. Commissioner Marks said that looking at public outreach for Code Enforcement she could certainly see the need for direct services that the non-profit organizations are providing, but said that she would like to specifically look at that to see if there is a better way of informing the public about what services the Department provides. Commissioner Marks said that in talking about this, it does bring up Mr. Rovetti since part of his job is media outreach and she wondered what he is actually doing in that area and is there another way of doing that. Vice-President Hood said that she understood that President Fillon would look at these items and work them into the agenda. Commissioner Walker asked if there were any carry over items. Secretary Ann Aherne said that a letter was sent to the Mayor's Office of Housing regarding what is being done with SROs and if they could do a presentation at a future meeting.
Vice-President Hood said that she would not be at the next meeting, which would be on November 21st. Director Chiu said that perhaps the next meeting should be cancelled, as it would be the day before Thanksgiving and the Commission normally takes a break.
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Marks that the Commission cancel the second meeting for November and have the next meeting on the first Wednesday of December. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 064-01
Vice-President Hood said that she would like to add a report on the November 30th meeting and the current status on the major alteration and demolition committee. Commissioner Walker said that the Committee was officially called the Unlawful Demolition Committee.
Secretary Ann Aherne said that she had contacted Linda Avery, Secretary to the Planning Commission, and City Hall about reserving the Board Chambers to have a joint meeting with Planning sometime in January.
12. Public Comment: The BIC will take public comment on matters within the Commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
13. Adjournment.
Commissioner Walker made a motion, seconded by Commissioner D'Anne to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. BIC 065-01
The meeting was adjourned at 4:20 p.m.
_______________________
Ann Marie Aherne
Commission Secretary
SUMMARY OF REQUESTS BY COMMISSIONERS
Write letter to Civil Service Commission regarding BIC's support of shuttle service for 1660 Mission Street. - Commissioner Marks Page 6
Agendize resolution in support of Department of Public Health's NERT Campaign. - Commissioner Walker Page 7 & 8
Agendize a report from the Department as to response and preparation for emergencies with possible action. - Vice-President Hood Page 11
Description of duties performed by Mr. Rich Rovetti. - Commissioner D'Anne Page 11
Report on November 30, 2001 Unlawful Demolition Committee Meeting. - Vice-President Hood Page 12