feedback and streamlining processes. it has been helpful to reach out to his partners to hire folks in the small-business community. be patient. we have two more speakers, and then we will take the big picture. we are on the employee side. we have colin and bruce, representing skytech solar. if you could come on up? >> hello, everybody. i am the founder and ceo of skytech solar. our mission is to install solar at absolutely no cost to low- income residents of san francisco. it is paid for by the city and by california. the rebates are paid directly to us after the installation is up and running. the payback is immediate to fixed-income residents finding a typical to in these times to pay

bills. we have over 170 household customers and counting that qualify for our free program. i have installed three solar 442 households to date. we acquired five people from the jobs now program. it has helped us tremendously. the business was started after the banking crisis and no bank would accept applications for loans unless you had at least two consecutive profitable years in business. this would prevent any startup from getting a loan. with the program, the funds received help us expand our business and hire new employees. we use these funds to provide training to jobs now employees. the employees learning graduate -- a valuable new skill that gives them experience to be successful in the industry. each employee is an asset to the company brings something special. bruce brings 30 years of experience as a roofer with the skills to make sure we feel the penetrations of the roots will

work on. carlos brings electrical experience to assist with the wiring. we expect our jobs now employees to continue installing for us with or without the extension of the jobs now program. [applause] thank you. however, if the program is extended, we expect them to train the next group of jobs now employees. [applause] thank you. >> good morning. my name is bruce, and today i am an employee at skytech. before that, i was unemployed for two years. i had to turn in the keys to two cars to the bank because i could not pay for them anymore. i could not support my daughters, could not get welfare, could not get unemployment. things were really bad. i have been with the company for

about eight or nine months. i am hoping this program gets extended so i can continue to be there. short and sweet, i am glad to be back in the work force again. thank you. [applause] >> like our implementation of jobs now, we went quickly. we are flying blind times. i overlooked tamara rivera. i would like her to come up. >> hello. i am a single mother of a 10- year-old girl. previous to discovering jobs now, i was unemployed for four year. money was extremely tight and i spent the majority of time looking for a job, posting my resume, and going on interviews, instead of spending time with my daughter. as you can imagine, i was frustrated and very unhappy.

i needed a job to cover my expenses and give me purpose. i heard the about this for jobs now and i thought my experience volunteering at my daughter's library was great. fortunately, they agreed. i'm in charge of receiving inventory, processing orders, packing books, shipping, making sure customers get the books that kids want. i was trained on how the operation system worked and challenge to make it more efficient. it is great to be part of the timor my role really matters. i get to provide a valuable -- valuable feedback to help our service. in addition, i have made -- i have been given the opportunity to assist in the production of marketing materials and develop graphics for the website. these are skills i hope to build upon in the future. having a job means a great deal to me. i have grown in confidence and a happy to get up in the morning

as my life has purpose and meaning. [applause] i am able to pay my way and provide for my family, which has had a positive influence on our lives. i am able to spend time with my daughter and do the things with her instead of looking for a job and constantly worrying about money. this past month, i was able to buy her a bike and enroll early summer camp, which made us both very happy. [applause] i am now a positive role model for her, and to benefit from my improved attitude to life. finally, as a bonus, we get to use the service. i never knew how much she loved reading prior to working year. she read several books per week and we have for friends over for book review parties. it is hard to stop her from wanting to read all the time.

[applause] i was amazed. this reiterate to me how important my job is. in closing, i would like to thank the jobs now program. the program has affected every part of my life in a positive way. i am thankful to be able to be part of an exciting start of business. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thanks. i did see a face in the audience a want to recognize, the president of san francisco human services commission. dr. paul avalos stuart. -- pablo stewart. about 800 of the participants in jobs now are helping out the

public sector in trainee positions, contributing to the public good, with a recreation and park, public health, department of environment, and human services agency. i'm happy to introduce the next person. she works for is that the human services agency as a receptionist at the front desk. i get to see her smiling face every morning. her name is carla garcia. carla, come on up. [applause] >> please excuse me. i'm a little bit nervous. i am a single mother. until july 9, i was a jobs not participant. in march, 2009, i was laid off from a local real estate brokerage because of the market meltdown. i was out of a job with very little income and a family to take care of. i tried applying everywhere,

answering ads, attending job fairs, but only came up with a part-time job outside the city. i heard about the jobs now program from as ramona torres, who encouraged me to be placed as a public-service trainee with the city and county of san francisco. i interviewed and was placed at 170 otis as a public-service trainee performing administrative duties. [cheers and applause] after being employed -- after being unemployed for what seemed an eternity, the program gave me a new sense of being and i felt like myself again. my kids seemed happier and told me they were proud of me because i never gave up. working as a public-service trainee, i was able to brush up on my asman skills, attend staff trainings, and become a part of the team within the human services agency. it is good to bring home a paycheck i finally turned.

all along, we understood this was a federally funded program that would last until september, 2010, unless it was extended. my supervisor at that time, john murray, encouraged us to look for permanent employment, requiring us to apply to least five jobs per week. in december, 2009, received an alert for a job opening with the city and county as a 2903 eligibility worker. [cheers and applause] i applied and because of my experience in the human services agency as a trainee, i was notified that i met the minimum experience and qualification requirements. [applause] my family and i were ecstatic. i actually had a chance of becoming a permanent employee somewhere. later, i took the civil test and was notified that i had not only passed the test, but i ranked

number nine. [cheers and applause] in june, i interviewed for the eligibility worker position. as of july 12, i am a permanent employee of the city and county of san francisco. [cheers and applause] it has not been an easy task, but if it were not for the jobs now program, i would still be trying to survive. my kids and i have gone full circle, and i am grateful for the jobs now program. i've worked with great people of the human services agency. this has truly been an amazing experience and i feel truly blessed. thank you all. [applause] >> thank you. thanks for your patience. we are almost done. i want you to recognize the

employees have gone back to work and the employers who stepped up to hire them. give them a round of applause. [applause] i have to thank you for your enthusiasm, for coming here today. a couple closing remarks, i will bring mayor newsom back up and we will close. thanks. >> again, thank you all for coming out. now we have to do our family photo, of a group photo. then i will ask all of you -- i know this sounds like we are back in school, we had to write our congressmen and women, but i will ask, we will get the photo back to all of you, and we will start a real, concerted effort. here is the good news. congress comes back from recess in august. there is a real opportunity we have in a very short time, a small window of opportunity. and that is why every spare

moment, i don't want to take you off the job, every spare moment we need to organize and keep building the capacity, keep building this framework so we can make that powerful argument to get this extended. i am still hopeful we can make this happen. what do we all want? when we want it? what we want? when do we want it? where are we going to get a photo? let's go out and get it.

>> running. today is wednesday july 21. this is a regular meeting of the building inspection commission. i would like to remind everyone to please turn off electronic devices. the first item on the agenda is roll call. [roll call]

commissioner clinch is excused. we have a quorum. the next item is president's announcements. commissioner murphy: we do not have any announcements. >> okay, the next item and is item 3, directors report. >> pam, do you want to give this report? >> good morning. pamela levin, deputy director of financial services. i'm pleased to announce that we are on track to end the year with a positive fund balance. at this point in time, we are still closing the year, departments are still charging us for work orders. we are still doing entry to move monies around in terms of transfers and -- so it is still kind of a preliminary, still have not calculated deferred

credits, but as of now, we are projecting to take our fund balance from $553,000, where we ended last year, by $3.49 million, to the total of $4.3 million. staff will only fund 21.1 days of payroll, and i just wanted to add that i would to some training yesterday with controller's office of emergency management, and one of the things they said was departments need to maintain a positive sign balance in the event of an emergency because that is what we would need to draw on initially. so i think we have done well in controlling our revenues. one of the things is that we have done a really good job in bringing in additional revenue. in terms of the way the revenue is proposed, we would have a total of $3.95 million before

you drop money into the fund balance. as of that, $3.41 million is in the apartment, until, and hotel license fee. we are still under recovering in housing, but those increases that we establish for the 2009- 2010 fiscal year has yielded additional revenue. we are still having some bumping around in terms of the revenue for apartment license fees. there are some entries that the controller's office is making, adjusting some errors that occurred. we're still looking at whether or not all the appeals have been injured, you know, have been submitted. that number could still bump of around before the real and of the fiscal year, which is the accounting and, which is usually

in some timber -- could still bumper round before e d bend bu --mp around before the real end. we still charge revenue service. $1 million of that is for intergovernmental agreements. for instance, we are finding a larger agreement plan review project for us for the exploratory and, the chance they terminal, the chance of a joint authority --transbay terminal, a joint authority. the puc with their new office building, brought in revenue this last year for our planned review. what this means to me is that we did a good job and in terms of revenues of the ongoing height of service, and because $1 million of the increase -- the

$1.3 million increase was for the intergovernmental. we also have had a roughly $679,000 of refunds. this is -- the concept of the refunds is basically, we are paying current year revenue for prior year -- some current year, but prior year plans. so people who have committed -- submitted a plan for inspections and paid s in the prior fiscal year, we're refunding them in the current fiscal year, so, hopefully, this will kind of ratchet down. the refunds are very time consuming for our staff. they, you know, are difficult in their own way, and we are really hoping that that will decrease when the economy starts to get better.

when you exclude a mou's from the overall revenue, we're looking at 1.7% increase. that to me is a very modest increase between how we are originally prepared the budget and how we ended the budget. that is not to say that we were so great in preparing our budget, but at least this year, we did not have -- end up in a negative stance. the big news in expenditures is that we are projected to end up with a savings of 1.2% of the budget, and that is, again, shaving the bottom. it is containing costs, and one of the things this does not take into account, and we need to be cognizant of, is that we will have to be prepared for some of the contracts, the professional

services, and we also have some payments that still have to be made for the year ending june 30. i think overall, it is good news, but i think that we need to continue to be, you know, cognizant that the economy has not made this huge recovery. we are still trying to maintain our own, and i also wanted to let you know that we are filling positions that have been vacated by people that have retired and are trying to get some temporary help. while we were having a previous meeting, i had a discussion with the mayor's office, and they are processing lead divisions will putting through, and we have a very compelling story of why we need these positions. to give you an idea, the general

fund position, the general fund dept. on spending plans. they are really tied in terms of whether or not they can fill positions, but the bears office has stated that we can control our budget -- has faith that we can control our budget and not overextend next year. any questions? >> so we will be hiring back some of the staff laid off? is that the concept? >> we will have to hire back for the permit positions of the full list that exists. if there are no positions on the holdover list, we will have to recruit through the normal recruitment process, but in the meantime, we can fill them with temporary people, which we are trying to take up the whole list, also. great. maybe not our specific employees, but employees from the city that are on the list. great, thank you.

>> the $553,000 that you have in the fund for revenue for payroll -- you said you went to the controller's office are we increasing that? >> what we have this we need to have, if you will, a cushion for unexpected events, including but not limited to what we call catastrophic events such as earthquakes and fires and whatever because of those. that needs to cover the payroll for us, and because, probably, we're not going to have during the recovery, the initial time, is buried levels when you get into emergency recovery, but in

the initial period of time, we will not be having people coming in submitted projects to us. probably in the recovery time, we will, but in the initial, so we have to be able to cover the payroll for that initial time. in a catastrophic event of getting any -- getting the six- something magnitude -- what is it called? anyway, magnitude 6 earthquake or something to that effect, there is some sort of measure -- richter scale. great. if we were into that kind of situation, having, you know, the 553 we ended last year would fund five days. we would have to somehow or

other obtain funding for our people from another source. so the controller's office looks to us to be able to cover our payroll to continue during that time, so when we end the year and add more, based on this plan, we would end at $4.3 million. that still is only 29.1 pace -- paid days. it is the payroll in little over a month and a half. that is not enough. that is the point i'm trying to make, that we need to be prepared for an unexpected type of event. >> our customers are not bringing it in right now. do you have any suggestions on how we might get that fund up?

>> just so you know, we are increasing our work order with the port to do more internal plan checking for the port until the customer base does increase some, so we'll be doingmou work with the port, so that will bring in additional revenue that can be completed by current staff but can be put forward into the operating fund at the end of this fiscal year, the one we are currently in now, so we are projecting in the budget that this both to the board of supervisors, that we will be adding to the fund balance each year from now on, not taking from the fund balance, so that is the plan going forward, that we will not prepared a budget and present the commission with a budget that will be pulling from the operating fund. we will be balancing the budget with current funds against current funds and adding to the

operating fund balance each year. >> the other thing is that to the extent that we are seeing more projects come through, because they can defer their impact fee payment, if that concept works, we may get larger projects because some developers have been waiting for something to be, you know, and the test to be able to bring in stuff, and we are seeing that right now. what would be a comfortable balance in that fund? a couple of million dollars? -- >> what would be a comfortable balance in that fund? a couple of million dollars? they could say let's take it out and put it in the general fund, which they have done in the past. >> that is something i keep hammering home to the various entities that could make decisions on our budget, that we need to maintain a fund balance,

and it should not be used for anything other than repairs, but you hear anything from having six months of payroll, which is in the $16 million range, which, as we know, when we were in the $14 million range, of the money was siphoned off and used for other projects. it is really kind of -- i think the best thing we can do is continue to keep in mind and remind others that we are good stewards of our money and that we need to make sure that we are prepared and that we are self- sufficient. >> we also now have the support of the mayor's office, and there is a recovery initiative out there and recovery program that also directs departments to start looking toward what their department would need in the event of a catastrophic

emergency, and controller's office is recommending certain fund balances, even in the general fund for a rainy day fund, and that is, from what i understand, at least six months of payroll. commissioner hechanova:, have a couple of questions. this much is the accounting semantics with the projected increase in revenue of $3.9 million is due to -- there is a line there that says $134,000 shortfall in revenues in the interest and investment base. could you explain that to me? >> yes, what happened is that when we prepare the budget, depending upon what you are seeing your fund balance is going to be, you calculate, you know, a best estimate on the interest rate and then prepare the budget, and in this case, our budget was $332,000, and we

are bringing in $198,000 in interest and investments, so essentially, what we are doing is next fiscal year, we have ratcheted down on that. one of the things we looked down -- we look to cont what theroller's -- we looked at is wha ttht the controller's offics doing. we're projecting we're not going to get much more next year than we did this year. >> that is what you are trying to match up to moving targets? >> lots of moving targets. >> second question, and this might be more in the category of the incoming, is there anticipation of a the projected revenues that would come in to thedbi as it is this the to sea --the dbi