to continue the item to september fifth. and president mccarthy? >> aye. >> mar. >> yes. >> commissioner clinch yes. >> commissioner lee. >> yes. >> mccray. >> yes. >> melgar. >> yes. >> commissioner walker. >> yes. >> and that motion carries. and okay >> we will go to item five, but i kind of want to talk about five and six, just before you read it in. i have as you noticed commissioners a potential closed session on item 6 there and the reason i put that in there is in case, there was a forwarded conversation needed above and beyond item five today and so, it is there, if it needs to go further, i hope that we will not have to. i just kind of wanted to tell the commissioners why it is there and i believe that we have the parties here, and to start item five and they can give us a scope of what is going on. i don't know who...

>> okay. >> good days, commissioners i'm sheryl (inaudible) of alliance resource. >> and i want to read this to the record. we are addressing item five and discussion on the recruitment process of the director of the department of building inspection. >> i want to recap the progress to date, on june 4th we sent out invitations to the target list of individuals, these individuals were based on our research, to appear to have the most ideal fit and experience to what you would express in your recruitment brochure. and we also placed a round of recruitment calls to the individuals for a response and a feedback as well, to insure that we cast as wide of a net as possible and to encourage the minority and female out reach, we placed the ads

nationwide in ten places. the deadline was june 28th, and as of the deads line, we received a large number of candidates. and over half of these applicants met the minimum qualifications that were set forth in the recruitment brochure, so with that, group that met the qualifications we sent out a request for the additional information, and these were supplemental information forms that asked, statistical information such as budget, size, staff size, and as well as some short answer questions, we asked four, and the questions were basically, crao*e ated based on my notes that i had from the start meeting that we did with the city. of the candidates who completed the supplemental information, we conducted brief screening interviews and then identified ten, as the leading candidates of that group. and since then, we have

conducted face-to-face in-depth screening interview and have narrowed that list to a select group of leading candidates. and so as of right now, we are now ready to move this recruitment to the interview phase. >> >> commissioners? >> could you give us the numbers of how many applicants and how did you widle it down? >> sure. >> sure. >> we received 31 total applicants >> that was active supplemental? >> and we requested supplemental from 19 of these individuals. >> all right. >> and how many are are you recommending that we interview? >> 7. >> all right. >> and could i ask what was some of the criteria after the supplemental to without names, just the criteria that you used? >> sure. >> to the finalists?

>> well, we did basingeded the questions on management, leadership and technology and educating the community and out reach and building and fostering relationships. >> and how about the from the ten to the 7? >> those are just the candidates that we felt interviewed the strongest had the most similar experience, to san francisco, had done adequate research, were familiar with your issues and challenges and how it relates to their current position and why they would be a good fit for you. >> okay. >> commissioner walker? >> i am sure that we will see this in more depth, but did we get a response from like all over the country? >> you did. >> good. >> and that is reflected in the 7 finalists as well? >> yes.

>> okay. >> however, they all have western region experience as well. >> commissioners? >> well, i think that... >> are we finished? >> go ahead. >> well, i just i think that i was just going to say that it was really helpful to speak with you. i think that all of us were able to sort of discuss our history, our priorities, and i think that i am really heartened that we had such a good response, because it is a lot for our department. and our city. and who would not want to live in san francisco, right? >> right. >> and i think that all of us are excited to move forward. and i think that one of the things that was brought up by the grand jury report is that it is time to have permanent

leadership and i think that it is good that we are at this point, so thank you, president for providing us here. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> and i think that excuse me, would you restate the four criteria management, leadership, community. >> community, education, and then maintaining and fostering relationships. >> and technology. >> yeah. >> thank you. >> if i may... the next step, that i kind of asked ted to come because we have discussed this and i think that ted will do a better job explaining the next step for us, and make sure that everybody is okay with that. >> good morning, the managing deputy director. and we have been working closely with the vendor to establish a process that we think that we are very proud of in terms of the quality of the candidates, that the vendor will be able to present to you, from our perspective having the

commission as a whole, evaluate the final applicant pool, i think that it is a wonderful opportunity for you to get to see the quality and breadth of candidates that the vendor has been able to narrow down for us, with that, we wanted to recommend that the commission schedule some time, where we would be able to with the consultant, do a formal presentation of the candidates to you, and have you have an opportunity and a more structured format to interview the candidates, independently, and to come up with some determination on how you would like to ultimately determine the finalists. >> so with that said, whatever is your pleasure in terms of time lines and structure, we would be happy. >> and so, just to talk briefly, commissioners i think that we are all on the same page and we have two dates and we have the 5th and the ten it ising of september. and to do this. and that is what i am proposing that we give those two days to do, and we do the two, rounds of interviews, as well on the

finalists candidates >> we will do two days of interviews, half of the candidates on the fifth and the other half on the 10th. >> right. >> in my discussion, with president mccarthy, we also were interested in establishing the peer panel review as well. and that would be done at the same time that the commission had the opportunity to meet the candidates. and and it will be the finalist and the pure panel, we suggest that we be made of the select $department heads and they provide for the commission, some feedback not necessarily the suede positions but to provide the feedback for the recommendations on the finalists as well. >> commissioner walker, just to recap the history, i did this before and we had the controller and i think that the head of dbw was at that time was there and it was helpful because they are so interactive and working together, it was

really helpful to our decision, i think. >> yeah. >> and a lot of this is a lot of the best and past practices that have happened the last time. so commissioner lee? >> okay. >> and thank you, and so, just to cap the fifth and the tenth. to sets of interviews, the parallel interview with the department heads that will happen the same day. >> correct. >> and then the fifth you will start us off by doing a presentation of everybody before we started interviewing? >> i think that i would suggest that if it is your pleasure, that we ask consultant to provide the candidate profiles to you in advance of having the interview, so you have a general feel. that is sensitive and confident. and we respect the confidentiality of the candidates. the questions that you might want to also pose to these

interviewees and we would be happy to coordinate that and so that on the first day on the fifth when you see the first set of candidates we have a general idea of who you are will be seeing and some, sort of guidelines on questions, we can do a presentation to start the day with all of the candidates, so that you kind of are able to put each individual in the context of the whole and be happy to do that as well. when will you get the resume and the applicants? do we get them on the same day? >> i am guessing that we send them to you at least a day or two in advance. >> okay >> and we can ask our consultant to assist in doing some quick, sort of bullet points about the strengths of the candidate based on their review to date. so that will be, previous employment history and the nature of the organization in which they work the sides of the organization and so yeah, you have a context about who these individuals are. >> and we are happy to get that to you in advance. >> and as to possible

questions, to be vice president mar and you could work out a draft to send to us and we could. >> yeah, this was one parts to the conversation, that we said that it was important that we kind of, you know, we kind of scripted as well with our questions and we can as a commission, we can divide them up accordingly. >> so i think that will be important. okay. >> yeah it was helpful to have the same questions. >> yeah. >> thank you for coming and you have an outstanding and holding my hand through the whole process. so, obviously, we will not need to go into closed session. and but we have public comment here on item five, correct. >> we have public comment on agenda item five.

>> >> good morning, commissioners, and my intent not to take the work away from the recruiting agency and they are extremely talented but we do not need a national search, we have the talent with us today. his name is tom hews and we need to remove the acting adjective in front of his title we want to make him the permanent director. and why is that? >> san francisco is experiencing growing pains, we are anticipating, 118,000 people to come to san francisco in the next 14 years, and we need a licensed structural engineer, that understands the technical complexities of the permitting process, and he has been a dbi for over 16 years, and prior to that, he comes from the private sector.

and he worked for the structural engineering firm and at that time, the most successful structural engineering firm in town and this was before i founded my own. and an incredible firm and this is an individual that understands, the process and understands the significance of expediting the permitting process. and we know that the difficult of dealing with a planning process. and we know how long that takes. and fortunately, dbi, has adopted, over the counter permit system at the fifth ward where you can go through all of your different disciplines at the same time on the same floor and you can pay for that permit. who instituted that process? mr. tom hewe y, most people don't realize that 92 percent of the permits that are issued by dbi are issued over the counter. thanks to that vision, and

thanks to the understanding that we must assist on expediting the process. and in addition to that, we are also discussing the deputy director. and the individual that, again, has a great deal of experience, from the private sector. and he now deals with the process of inspections. and extremely talented, extremely capable and someone that i know will be a great permanent deputy director, thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. san toes. >> the next speaker, please? >> good morning, commissioners, coalition for the responsible growth and you probably have to go through this process, i believe, but maybe i am wrong about that, to do it a nationwide search. if i am correct, and i hope

that internal candidates are given the same level of priority as the outside candidates are in the process that are being implemented by the independent consultant group. i am here in support of mr. hewe c being appointed to the position regardless of the crop that comes in from the outside and their importance levels, i am an old believer in the idea of something not being broke then don't try to fix it. >> are you likely to find a candidate from the outside than what you have as a record already, and with regard to his ability to do the job. >> for me i will key in four things if i can get them in quickly in my two remaining minutes. when i was new, he was one of

the people that was a stranger to me and me to him, he made me feel comfortable and not so intimidated which i find to be an extraordinary positive attribute for anyone representing the building department, let alone the director. it is automatically implied that the level of experience and comprehension of the code for san francisco is unsurpassed nobody is going to come in with a better understanding than mr. hewe y will by virtue the fact that he has been there for so long and so that is an applied condition if you don't have to verify, you will have to wait for somebody else to come up to speed for that if you come from the outside. and thirdly, i have seen, through e-mail communications, he made decisions at times, that instruct me as a man doing his job and being willing to step up and make decisions, when he had to make the decisions which is one of the

faults that ip find, very often, dealing with the city agencies, and they have the cyo, and i saw a great example of it yesterday. and causing a lot of extra time, money, resources, and that we are really didn't have to be ex-spended if someone was willing to say that i am the plan responsible for this and it is my decision, and i will make that decision, and we will make it to the best of my abilities. that is huge benefit for anybody, serving the public and he is somebody who has demonstrated, that willingness. and lastly, i just don't want to deal with it, not knowing the entity and waiting them to wram p up and learn about san francisco and all of that stuff. he is already there and he knows it, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good morning, commissioners, i am a contractor, and a

expediter, i know tom and long time ago, sxh his office, his respect for people and he can see them any place and you can ask him any question that you want in the elevator or in the lobby, any place, if you think that you have a problem you can discuss it with him and i am happy with the service that we are getting because i deal with a lot of customers and of course, they use the expedited because we move the things faster than if the owner of the property shows up, and we have a blood pressure high and they leave with the anger and so we can work with them and they know ins and out of the business, and also, tom (inaudible) is great, and his office is always open and i never had any problem, just walking through his office and ask him and he has been opened with me, and i have seen him with everybody else and he is perfect, and these two people, are perfect people for the

department, and i don't think that if you bring somebody from the outside, obviously, they, we had it before and we just, finished with one or two of them before and there was a disaster and i don't think that you will have a problem with these two gentleman working for the department thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> hello, my name is kevin change and i like to speak on behalf of mr. hewey and lawry, there is a tendty to look for new management and something fresher and greener but i urge you to consider them for the acting positions be permanent because as you know san francisco is made up of not only the new projects downtown but also the projects in the neighborhoods, and in the outer districts, as well. and many of those projects are run by small businesses and family owned businesses and the challenge to gain, the voice in

the city, is very difficult when you have to manage a large and dynamic city like san francisco. i can imagine new directors coming in, and dealing with the top three, five, issues at best. when they have to, run a new city. and it is difficult to learn and have a relationships that are only built with time. and in the outer neighborhoods and they have those relationships. and i urge this commission to seriously consider, the strong bench, and the home grown bench they have before looking for a new director in the process, thank you. >> mr. president, and members of the commission, my name is bob nelky and i am here with crg and i just want to mention i echo the sentiments that have been expressed here, very strongly today. on both of these people. there are really nice to work

with, and but i want to express two other points. mr. hewey has been a number at community meetings and i am a series of boards and commissions small property owners and so on in the city. he has been at those meetings and has been very, very helpful to our membership and in the out reach session and going into the community he has been very, very good and knowledgeable and answers the questions and always accessible to the public. the second thing is that i am a former employee of dbi and mr. hewey, being and working in that agency for many years, knows those people and he would be good to those employees as well. we have to think about the employees of our department as well who are hard working, for the most part and very productive. and he knows these people and he has a working relationship with them. and he is accessible. and therefore, i support, strongly, his candidacy and that. >> next speaker, please.

>> i am john (inaudible) and i am a member of the crg. president, commissioners, deputy director, it is great to be in front of you once more, and i have great regard for the work of this commission and the staff of dbi, and i am principally today to support the deputy director and lowry to be made permanent and the simple formula that i look at when these matters occur and i have used them effectively in my life in the past and there are six words, can do, will do, and how fit. and on the ka do side, for tom hewey, he is a certified building official. and he is also registered civil

and structural engineer. and he has so many other certifications and that it would take up the afternoon and i say that in one sentence but he also has the amazing experience in the private unpublic sector, and you heard something about the work with dbi. and on the will do, is more about about it, if you look at his career, and he is also a member of the professional organizations, and the north american structural engineers and the north american society of civil engineers as well as the work that he does here in dbi and the public advisorry committee and so tom is highly motivated. and the last one, how fit, in most recruitments circles is found to be the most difficult.

how do you, get this information or individuals to fit well into the organization? >> and i have a experience of coming here on the side of many occasions and one of the things that i have noticed over that period of time is tom hewey walking around and i said to him on occasion, tom you really do believe in management by walking around and that has been mentioned already, he is very visible and he is comfortable with everybody and in particular to the customers and i said, on one occasion when i was having difficulty with a permit process, he passed by and his language skills in mandarin and cantonese helped to smooth it. so it is a gift in many ways. and mr. lowry i had something to do with him in the last six months i needed a problem solved and he took charge of us, and called people together,

banged heads, and kept me informed of the process and i was impressed when with the skill sets that he brings and so i recommend that they will be made permanent. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >> if there is any more speakers if you would like up there. >> my name (inaudible) and i have been running around the department for the last 20 years and the last two directors you see here (inaudible) and it is tom over to the acting director, and then they will be getting better and better. and then, (inaudible) the deputy manager and he is always over there and you can ask him a question that you can answer for you. is that is what we need in san francisco. and you don't see it in the last (inaudible) and (inaudible) you can ask anybody here (inaudible) you ask those

guys and then these two guys, they are the best in san francisco and we used to get them for the (inaudible) thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, president and commissioners. jeremy shaw from (inaudible) architect and while the rest of the speakers in front of me probably have a lot more experience than i do been working in san francisco for 8 years now and i have always known if there is an issue i can speak to tom or dan and they have been always available to speak to the public via, the citizens or architects like myself or anyone involved in the project sponsor team and i would like to express my support. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> hello, gardener again, before you. and i would like to emphasize, the important of continuity in

the department and not only in the building department, but, among the other departments. and dpw, and water departments, and you know, fire, in particular, and tom, and his team and a lot of them are here today, and we have been working with for the last few years, since we went to this process in the last time. and you know, we have made, significant progress. and we have learned a lot from that last process. and you know, we understand that you have to go through it again and you have the proper procedures, and you know, at this point, you know, we have not established hierarchy and we have not established the people running the department and they worked together and worked well with the community and i just think that you know if you hire somebody from the outside, there is going to be a disconnect, a huge disconnect

and it is going to take, you know, months and maybe years for a new person to get acclamated to the way that the city works, there is so much involved that someone from the outside is not going to be able to comprehend and we feel that tom is in place now and he has got his team. and you know, i think that when you are going to find is that tom, you know, is going to stack up, very, very well. against those that you bring in from the outside. i mean, he and you know that we have the hill span and the head and shoulders above them and tom is humble and he is sitting over there and but, you know, we just feel that way and we hope that you guys agree with this and you know we will keep him in place and his team. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker?

>> mr. president, and commissioners, my name is john mccain artle and i became a resident of san francisco in 1969 and i started out as a tenant. and in the mid 70s, i chose to with some friends of mine become a housing provider. the skills that i provided that i had at that time, was i was able to be a painter. and i was able to be a window washer and able to be a janitor in the housing that we first invested in. and i was not familiar with the code work and i did not have any background as an electric an or a plumber or a carpeter and so in order to do that kind of code work in the buildings that i was involved in, i had to get, people who have the skills and the capabilities of doing that. the thing that i found at that

time, was their reaction was, yeah i will work for you, but you go and get the permits. and that is when i learned something about permits that were required, in san francisco. and in the past several years, as i was able to grow the business that i was involved in investing in, that became something that was not necessary. because, the contractors that were involved could go to san francisco's department of building, to get the permits and the reaction was we will take care of that. and now, i can't speak to the technical skills of these gentleman, that are being talked about. but i can talk about what it is like to be able to accomplish what my objective was. and my partner's objectives are, in being able to go to someplace to get the work done which was nec