>> good morning. today is wednesday, march 20th, 2013. this is the meeting of the abatement appeals board. i would like to remind everyone to turn off all electronic devices. the first item on the agenda is roll call. president clinch? >> here. >> commissioner lee?

>> here. >> commissioner mar? >> here. >> commissioner mccray? >> present. >> commissioner walker? >> present. >> and commissioner mccarthy and melgar are excused. ~ and we have a quorum. the next item is item b, the oath. will all persons that may be giving testimony today please stand and raise your right hand? do you swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth to the best of your knowledge? >> yes. >> thank you. you may be seated. item c, approval of minutes, discussion and possible action to adopt the minutes for the meeting held on november 21st, 2012. there is a motion to approve the minutes. >> move to approve. >> second. >> all in favor. >> aye.

>> any opposed? is there any public comment on the minutes? the minutes are approved. the next items are continued appeals for order of abatement. the cases, case no. case no. 6773, 1316 - 22 mariposa street has been continued and the continuance has been granted for 30 days. is there any public comment? >> can we hear from staff? >> i'm sorry? >> can we hear from staff? >> let's take one at a time. let's do the continued appeal, 67 73, what happened -- >> well, they -- well, go ahead. >> i received correspondence

from the -- from richard thomas requesting an additional 30 days due to illness and the fact that his lawyer was out of town. speaking with the city attorney, and sonya, and i did call president clinch yesterday to ask his permission if he agreed with the department staff. he, according to the city attorney, president clinch and myself, we decide it had was best if we gave mr. thomas an additional 30 days due to the codes. >> i understand that last month the appellant asked for a continuance and submitted a letter saying that he was not available or his engineer was on vacation or something like that. so, did he submit a letter this time? >> yes, we have an additional letter from mr. thomas requesting it. >> it was in the packet --

>> was it in our package? i thought that was the one for last month. >> no, there's two letters in there. there is one in the beginning. >> i have a question. i would like to know what the building code allows around continuances. >> the building code allows one continuance for 60 days. i gave him one continuance for 30 days. but there's other things other than the building code, there's past practices. >> yes, did you want to answer the -- >> i just have a question on procedure. i'm a bit confused here. who is granting the continuance, you or the staff? >> right, we are being asked to continue this. it's on our agenda. >> thank you. >> actually, the way it transpired was the appellant requested continuances of all three matters that are on the agenda. and according to the rule 7.10

that we had discussed earlier, the -- not the building code, but the rules that apply to the building appeals board, is my understanding, it says that if the secretary -- if there's no objection from the department and the secretary has the approval of the president, the secretary of the board can continue the matters. my understanding is that the secretary contacted the president yesterday and he agreed. and according to mr. sweeney, there was no objection from the department. so, according to the rules, the continuance can be granted. and we discussed the fact that the building code section 105 a.2 says that there should be one continuance for 60 days, but in light of the stated reasons, the fact that the first continuance was for 30 days and there being some ambiguity based on the fact that people are -- have routinely been granted more than one continuance, it would

be best -- it was my advice consistent with the rules and the practices of this board that the continuance could be granted if the secretary and the president agreed and there was no objection from the department. that was my advice. i didn't advise whether or not to grant it, just the rules as i understood them. >> right, i had not experienced that once it's on the agenda and we get it, usually it's the decision of the commission to do it. i mean, i just -- i mean, i think that we need to -- my concern is this is languaged on forever that the first letter was basically one set of excuses. the next letter is another set of excuses. and i would like to draw a line as to when we resolve this case. so, i mean, i would like input from the commissioners on -- >> well, i think since -- i would like to draw the line, it

too, so to speak. but since the discussion here sounds like we authorized one continuance for 60 days, and we gave one continuance for 30 days so we can actually grant another 30 days and that's it. can we do that? >> like i said, there was -- there is some ambiguity because the rules that apply to the ab, which is the rule 7.10 says if there is a written request to the secretary and the secretary has the approval of the president and there's no objection from the department, then the continuance can be granted by the secretary. if the department objects, then the rule 7.10 says that then the appellant has to come before the board and request the continuance. so, again, i'm not advising whether or not it should have been granted, but i was just explaining -- okay. >> okay. so, since it was granted, let's say -- >> yes. >> -- is it for 30 days and that's it, right? not 60 days, it was 30 days

from now. >> that was my understanding, mr. sweeney notified the appel -- appellant that he was granted a 30-day continuance. >> yeah, i think this has been languaged in, too. the other problem with this hearing is that there's more than one issue. there were four issues, i think, that was going to be coming before this commission. so, what i would like to do is just to let the appellant know that we're going to hear it in 30 days. so, if somebody is sick, if somebody is not available, he should find somebody else to represent him. but for whatever reason, we're going to hear it, all these four cases, in 30 days whether he's here or not, or whether any of his representatives are here or not. so, he better get it together and have somebody here. that's what i would like to do. >> >> could i also say i'm concerned that if we notice that something is on the calendar, if there is any

public that's here in response to it, you know, that's one of the reasons why we shouldn't just take it off the agenda prior to the hearing because i want to make sure that we're in compliance with our brown act and, you know, all of the notifications that we do. so, i mean, my preference when we're talking about the rules in the future is that we address that, that if it's noticed to the public, that there might be a different handling of the appeal or a continuance. and if the continuance is requested before the actual noticing goes out, just -- >> i think that there would be a lot of benefits to making -- amending the rules and making these things clear. i want to be cautious about discussing what those amendments might be now because amending the rules was not a noticed item. so, just -- but i -- but what i propose to do is to circulate

some possible solutions to what i think are some of the ambiguities. again, based on -- because you have to be cautious about proceeding consistently with respect to each person that comes in front of the board. so, that was my caution also yesterday. >> yes. >> but i do think it would be a good idea to put it on the agenda for some possible amendmentses to the rules. >> and we put that on our abatement appeals agenda? >> that's correct. >> okay. >> that would be great. thank you. did you have a comment -- >> clarification if i may through the chair. and that is we want to afford this appellant the same respect and due process he as any other appellant that comes before you. i just want to clarify that. this is a city attorney case, and that while 60 days seems to

be appropriate on the basis of your determination, we do have a continuing staff, the department has a continuing concern about the issues at this particular building. and if this went beyond a 60-day period, we would not agree to that. >> so, does it require a motion, what commissioner mar was describing? >> no, because mr. sweeney -- again, with your approval, yesterday, granted the appellant's continuance. my reading of the rules, he can proceed that way. i just wanted to point out that this is -- because there was no objection from the department, so, if there's an objection from the department, then it has to come before the board. as the rules are currently written. >> got it. >> thank you. >> just one question, mr. chair. this continuance requested an

"and" and the "and" is the production of documents. what kind of work load is that? who is to produce them? how is that -- or does that go with the continuance, or is that denied? >> it probably goes with the continuance, what documents he's requesting i'm not sure. this case has been going since the first notice of violations for months and months and months. he's had plenty of time to get any documents that he should desire. so, the ball is in his court. we're waiting for him to tell us exactly what he wants from us. >> thank you. also item f, public comment, is there any general public comment on the abatement appeals board? items that are not on the agenda?

okay, seeing none, item g, adjournment. is there a notion to adjourn? >> yes he. >> move to adjourn. >> move to adjourn. >> second. >> second. >> okay. we are now adjourned. it is 9:23 a.m. [adjourned]

>> hi today we have a special edition of building san francisco, stay safe, what we are going to be talking about san francisco's earth quakes, what you can do before an earthquake in your home, to be ready and after an earthquake to make sure that you are comfortable staying at home, while the city recovers. ♪

>> the next episode of stay safe, we have alicia johnson from san francisco's department of emergency management. hi, alicia thanks to coming >> it is a pleasure to be here with you. >> i wonder if you could tell us what you think people can do to get ready for what we know is a coming earthquake in san francisco. >> well, one of the most things that people can do is to make sure that you have a plan to communicate with people who live both in and out of state. having an out of state contact, to call, text or post on your social network is really important and being able to know how you are going to communicate with your friends, and family who live near you, where you might meet them if your home is uninhab hitable. >> how long do you think that it will be before things are restored to normal in san francisco. >> it depends on the severity of the earthquake, we say to provide for 72 hours tha, is

three days, and it helps to know that you might be without services for up to a week or more, depending on how heavy the shaking is and how many after shocks we have. >> what kind of neighborhood and community involvement might you want to have before an earthquake to make sure that you are going to able to have the support that you need. >> it is important to have a good relationship with your neighbors and your community. go to those community events, shop at local businesses, have a reciprocal relationship with them so that you know how to take care of yourself and who you can rely on and who can take care of you. it is important to have a battery-operated radio in your home so that you can keep track of what is happening in the community around and how you can communicate with other people. >> one of the things that seems important is to have access to your important documents. >> yes, it is important to have copies of those and also stored them remotely. so a title to a home, a

passport, a driver's license, any type of medical records that you need need, back those up or put them on a remote drive or store them on the cloud, the same is true with any vital information on your computer. back that up and have that on a cloud in case your hard drive does not work any more. >> in your home you should be prepared as well. >> absolutely. >> let's take a look at the kinds of things that you might want to have in your home. >> we have no water, what are we going to do about water? >> it is important for have extra water in your house, you want to have bottled water or a five gallon container of water able to use on a regular basis, both for bathing and cooking as well as for drinking. >> we have this big container and also in people's homes they have a hot water heater. >> absolutely, if you clean your hot water heater out regularly you can use that for showering, drinking and bathing as well