lexology and it is from a particular individual who has done a lawyer who has done the summation of the bill. so, there are two ways in which there is going to be some reduction of statutory damages and the first one is if a qualified defend ant who has received a notice does remediation within 60 days, then there is the potential to reduce the liability and the statutory damages from $4,000 per issue, to $1,000 per issue. so it helps to reduce, some of the statutory damages for small businesses.

and too on page 4 two things that i wanted to highlight also for your department, is items c. so there are certain, and they provide a list of four things that four things, that businesses that they fall within one of these four things would qualify for those reduction of statutory damages. and item c is a structured area of a business premise where the alleged violation occurred where the new construction or the improvement was approved by past inspection by the local building department permits on or after january 1 of 2008 and before january 1, 2016. and there were no modifications or alterations to those affected areas, since the inspection incured.

there were none affected with the compliance since that inspection. those two things are really in there and to acknowledge your department's ex-per expertise and the department is going to have cast inspectors and so it is part of the inspection. and then there is now, a new definition for a small business and it is a business falls within this definition of a new small business, again, there is the ability for the reduction of statutory damages and that is if a business has fewer than 25 employees and if it is gross revenue is $3.5 million or less. that is some assistance but it does not effect. usually the higher cost in settling the lawsuit.

lastly a commercial, in the commercial lease, the land lords similar to david, the landlord is going to be required to provide some notification as to whether the property has undergone an appropriate cast inspection or not those are i think, the joint highlights between our two departments. from sb 1186 but there is more there for you to read. and then lastly, for david chui, it was enacted january 1, where property owners are required to let potential leasees to know, excuse me, first the property owners are to either one, bring their entrances in rest rooms into compliance or make sure that

they notify the perspective tenants that the business, the commercial space may not be in, you know, be in compliance and relationship to disability access. and then when it is time to engage in a new lease, or renew a lease, they do need to have a document that both entities sign i thought that i had did a printout. but i did do a printout of chapter 38. and there is a really good template form for the property owners to use. and we have taken this and made it into a form and we have that on our website for property owners.

to be able to access and they are required with the new leasee, or renewing their lease, a brochure from our office, which again, i pointed out to you, just to give them a little bit more information about disability access to requirements some of the laws, things to be looking at and then, of course, the resources that are there, that are available to them. and then the last component of supervisor david chui's regulation is just in regards to your office and i know that you have already this was under-way prior to january 1. but, is to have a priority permit processing, for businesses that want, that are coming in to do, disability access for remediation and improvements to the property.

with that, i think that is a quick summation and i am happy to take any questions. >> commissioner walker has questions for you, thank you for that presentation. >> thank you so much for all of this work, a lot of us have heard from small businesses being affected by some of these lawsuits, so this is really helpful. i believe you were involved also around our seismic mandatory program that we are likely going to be putting forward shortly and it seems like this program would tie-in really well with it. as because those are up grades that will happen primarily on the ground floor. so, i think that it would be really good to tie these two together. most of these buildings that we are talking about with the seismic program.

they are older and probably it is good for you to be tied into that. >> between our two department and your staff we have a close working relationship and understand, and the connection between what our two departments do around this issue and really i want to extend my appreciation to your staff, i think very sincere understanding to what small businesses incur around disability access. >> right. and the program that we have is what we have determined in some just a rough study of these buildings is mostly it is not going to be displacing temporarily housing, but rather commercial spaces and mostly small businesses. so, i think that it gets us the opportunity to bring them up to ada code and make sure that the disruption is minimal. so that would be great.

>> thank you for doing that. >> yes. >> happy to work with you on that. >> commissioner? >> hi, thank you for being here. this is awesome. and great progress in a short time. so, i am wondering what the plan is for out reach. you know, to make sure that a small businesses know what is going on with all of this, and particularly i am worried about chinese-speaking and spanish-speaking businesses who may not understand all of the technical stuff in english so well. and i am wondering if there has been any budgets set aside to make that happen for the printing of these great brochures or for, you know, people to talk to? or any coordination with owd or the corridor program, so if you can talk about that a little bit? >> yes, so, one is we are working with all of our neighborhood economic development organizations. so our non-profits that do

business assistance, so, renaissance, meta woman's initiative, and lacasina and so we have set a requirement as part of the cbgfunding is to insure that their clients receive information about, you know, preparing themselves informing their clients about disability access and going into commercial space and what they need to know about the law and the responsibilities but also how to assess the space, perhaps negotiate a lease and then make sure that the clients know that the property owner needs to be providing them this information. the brochures that we have right now is we also have them in spanish and chinese. and so just this past weekend, north east federal credit union put on a workshop in china town and it was great. we had 68 attendee and so one step is through our partnership

with our neighborhood economic development organization. it is up to them in terms of how they want to construct the education either through a workshop or one on one. through their business consultation. so that is one step that we are doing. as i said, with invest in neighborhoods which is part of the corridor program, there are 24 corridors that are identified in the invest in the neighborhood program. and we have when i say corridors, so in district four, we have three corridors, that are in this particular program where we do have individuals going door-to-door to the businesses. geary street in district one and china town is what we call the next corridor area. so, those are the areas right now where we are targeting doing the door-to-door out reach with this brochure.

and then, you know, as we can continue to increase any funding, then, you will do more on the ground of out reach. >> commissioner lee? >> thank you. >> i like to talk about more about the actual door-to-door out reach and how that happens. the reason why i am asking is that a lot of the small business that i have talked to already, they are already pretty fearful when somebody walks in and starts talking about ada but they are going to say that guy is a lot of money or i am going to cost me money to do something. so how does the asian neighborhood design team, what do they offer or what do they say? how do they relieve any anxieties that the business own are may have? and what type of resources do they offer? i mean do they refer them to other people? or what kind of information do they pass out?

>> right. so, so, they have the brochure, and then, and perhaps, you know, i should have them come and give you a presentation, i actually have not gone in with them when they have done the out reach. but they do go in and approach the business, and let them know that there are individuals that are, know that you out doing lawsuits, the city has partnered with them to reach out to businesses, to help, you know, inform them, protect them. and if they are or if they would like a free, sort of walk through at that given time, to look around, you know, to walk with the property owner or the business owner, and so they offer that. and then, say, you know, if you do want a full free assessment or if there are d not free assessment but if you want to

businesses that are in these corridors area, or in the corridor area, they can qualify for some funding to do the remediation. >> so i think that that is sort of the carat is that they could qualify for remediation and if they are interested in accessing that funding there is a form to fill out so that we have the documentation in terms of administer the funding. as long as it is not the high level, remediation, which high level would be if there are two or three steps going up into a business. but it is lower, or, you know, maybe the entryway might need just a slight ramp or a door modification or, you know, a power button, those kinds of

recommendations. then, asian neighborhood design is able to do that and that is the type of thing that those kinds of ininstruction related improvements are what can be our funding can provide. for the businesses to be able to access. >> did i... >> i think that what i am concerned about is that their approach is what do they offer? businesses are already concerned when somebody walks in or comes in and talks about this access and i just don't want them to get nervous. i don't want them to be worried that this is going to be a big issue for them. and i mean, it is. it should be, but they should take it seriously and i will continue to and make it work able. and comply to all of the laws. and then my last question follow up to this is if the asian neighborhood designers

reaching out to all of these businesses they must be collecting some sort of data and do we access that data? what do we use with all that have? or what do we do with that information? >> it just started so, i would say that, you know, that is a good point. and in terms of just the exact data, that we are collecting, and i don't know if we really sat down and articulated what that is. so that is a good question for me to follow up with. with them. and in the program administrator. i think, we are trying the third party approach just because of the fact of even if from my office and my staff, if we go in and talk to business and we say that we are, you know, here is my card and says that we are from the city, that is just automatically just sort of creates some sort of block or wall or fear and so, i have

heard from at least from the first walk through right after the express conference is that there were businesses that were actually very happy. that they felt that a little bit more comfortable. and i should not say happy, but they felt comfortable having the conversation and having asian neighborhood design walk through their business. and having a conversation. so, i think that at this point, you know, the idea is to sort of try all avenues to be able to reach out to businesses and to really kind of dispell that fear. and get them to be proactive. and with the presentation this morning and i appreciate it. >> you showed a little bit of the two questions, one is has there been a decline in small businesses, let's say, getting and putting to violation, and i don't or have not heard, me

personally, i have not heard lately and maybe it is an unfair question and maybe you don't have the answer, i am wondering with the positive moves that have been met at the state level and locally, has this been reflective that maybe there has been less... >> well, in terms of the individuals who are filing the lawsuits in san francisco, the way that some of this law is written is not or does not really apply to them. so, in some ways, the law would not necessarily mean that there would, or it is going to sort of diminish the type of lawsuits, the only thing that it would be is if the plaintiffs do think that they are not, you know, in these situations, because if they are really targeting the small businesses which they are, then the plaintiffs are going to receive less money in the statutory damages. so that may have an effect, i think that it is a little too early to know at this point.

the businesses that recently have reached out to our office that have been sued. these are suits that we are seeing that were done prior to this legislation being enacted. so, we have not yet called the filings of the federal court. which is primarily where the lawsuits are filed yet to see what has been, you know, taking a look at the volume of what has been filed in federal court. creating sb 1186. we have not done that yet. >> and it would be interesting as we get further down the road on that. finally you showed a little bit of ap preheniveness with the $3,000 which is important money to you. >> yes. >> and obviously, 30 days yes, and as a commission we want to make sure that you get that money. >> thank you. >> if anything that you can bring to us and give us updates on how that is going, please let us know. >> what i will do is i will definitely talk to one, our investment neighbors and

program administrator and asian neighborhood design to work on setting some criteria to come and report to you. and you know, if we are able to utilize any of these funding to enhance this program so that we can do more out reach that would be terrific and report back to you, part of the requirement is that we have to report back to the state on that funding. >> thank you. >> no further questions? >> thank you, once again for that presentation and in the short notice that i asked you all, so a great presentation here. thank you. >> thank you. >> a couple of comments on item four? >> seeing none, item five. discuss on the department's staffing level in 2013, and in relation to the incoming volume of work and how it effects each division. >> good morning commissioners.

we found the incoming volume of work, we see substantially increase among the work. what we see for the coming years, we will have, you know, a major project that will be coming in. it will brought to you on the next agenda item. regarding the staff, yes, in the process to hire at least 16 more vacancy, but it took a long time. because the hiring process and then the civil service rule. we have still ongoing schedules, and all of those, you know, trying to go through those processes, you know, to hiring the staff. and the other question that we want to ask. >> obviously, it is just, kind of, we are started in the year so it is kind of, you know, the

difficulties that we had last year, acting director and i know that we understand a lot of them now, but at the time when we were trying to get the staffing up, we now realize that you know, it is the civil service has a very strenuous process and i understand it. i understand that everything has to kind of take its course. i guess that the question that is important to me, as a commissioner and i don't know how the other commissioners feel about it is with this increase in volume that we have now that we are going to be taking a lot of things in and i want to kind of from a public point of view, i want the public to know that we are doing everything that we can to have the bodies there when we take these fees. obviously, you know, you do a great job, moving around the different departments trying to make sure that those people are there to kind of get you through this period. and if it is 16 vacancies still. >> 63. >> 63. >> yeah. >> okay. >> that is a lot of people. >> and that is across the board.

>> yeah. >> yeah. >> so, with regard, maybe, now not this commission, or later commission, we can start talking more about it. but with regard to check and regard to on sight inspections and with regard to the electrical departments and all of those, other departments how they or how are they doing with regard to the coping with the volume of work. >> the electrical department is first of all is the urgent one before we have get back four of the people to have temporary and in the meanwhile they are going through the testing and get finished. >> yeah. >> i think that this week they will be trying to get to all of next week sometimes. and also, the inspections our building inspect ors we have we have finished, you know, for all of the cds and we were trying arrange for the in-house

to you know, select, the building inspector. and then also that is a big thing is a couple of weeks we will have the 14 or 6 for supporting administration staff. and also have to interview also and then it will serious other you know, complication to a process going for next two to three months. >> okay. >> directors? >> do you want to add something? >> i just want to, chime in on what the director huey was saying. >> the 3106s and the 6334 that would be the chief building inspector and entry level clerks are planning on in-house interviews in late january, early february. that is part, that is just part of it. and then when we go for the

professional interviews, those people rise and then we have to get, we have to infill those positions so this will be ongoing. but we are going in the right direction, finally we have the list and that is the hardest thing to get the test get us certified and let the list and once you have the list it gets a little easier. at least we have a process and we have a list and we are making progress. >> and how are you handling the volume that you are dealing with now, particularly in your words with the plan check? >> in the last 6 months, we have had two months where we have had about a billion and a half dollars of reviews out of door >> a billion. >> one and a half billion. >> with regard to previous years, and you do have, how would that complete? >> the previous year, before, 2011, that is when we started the recovery, but 2011 is where it really got legs.

we are seeing no let down, yesterday, myself and director huey had a meeting with 706 mission, that is a 45-story residential tower and it is we are almost looking at it as a horizontal vertical addition, because it is attached to a ten-building story building. and we are seeing a big uptick in the tenant improvement and we are talking three or four or five floors at a time. and so we are showing no signs of slowing down, as a matter of fact, the designers are telling us that there is plenty in the pipeline, and planning is busy and review before we get it. >> how is your turn around time? are you feeling pressure with regard to the plans and turning them out? and stake holders? >> well, so much of what we do is over the counter. okay. >> i am more worried about the employee burnout a little bit.

i mean, they are coming at 8:00, we are averaging, what is january? it is still a little bit slow, but, when i say slow, we are still doing 120 over the counter a day. >> yes. >> and that is not including that does not include electrical and plumbing. >> right. >> okay. so, around the summer time we will be doing 150, 160, 170 over the counter every day. >> based on what you see with regard to the employment levels being kind of slow, being fed to you, do you feel that you will be able to address these types of volume? i mean it will never be perfect obviously i am learning that. >> it will never be perfect because the work ebbs and flows, right now we are on the uptick, if we can see in february when we pick the final candidates and get them in there fairly quick before the

rush hits, the rush should start happening in the next few weeks, and it kind of swings upward as close to summer as you get and it sustains that all the way until thanksgiving. >> okay. >> the fact this year was a few weeks after thanksgiving that it finally showed signs of curtailing a little bit. >> that is kind of the big difference between inspection service and plan check does not slow down for as long as inspection service. >> commissioner a question for you? >> yeah, you know, i guess, we have been talking about this for the last six months and i'm worried that i don't see, you know, a plan, moving forward that seems dowable. we heard from mickey who was very affable. two things worry me that i have definitely seen an increase in the work load at planning and it is coming our way.

interest rates are low. and the fed has said that they are going to remain low for the next 18 months and every developer that i know in town is capitalizing on that. and i think that we are going to see the increase that we have seen is going to hold for a while. and i do worry about employee morale. and i think that people are working their butts off and that is only sustainable for so long. once you hire someone it does take a while to get them to learn their job. and that taxes the existing staff even more for at least a little bit before things get better. so i am wondering, if we can come up with some way to maybe borrow staff from another department? to do just hr-related issues of, you know, you know, the stuff that needs to happen. you know, the first cut-off you know, the first interview.

and if we can request to the hr department to do the same, so maybe, the sign on the temporary basis, a couple of folks, to just help us get through. because the other issue with hr that i am familiar with is that that list is only fresh for so long, right? once you have that list, and it is 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, a lot of folks on the list will start moving on to other jobs or we will take advantage of other opportunities and then you are back to square one. and so i am worried about the timeliness of all of this and the impact on the department. as well as the impact on the general public. >> yeah the list that we developed are good for a year and we are extend it for one year, so the big hold up is to get the tests. i wrote the building inspector senior and chief test and tom did all of the engineering test and that takes a long time. you also have to get together with