tv [untitled] December 22, 2010 8:30am-9:00am PST
8:30 am
that be as it is and look forward. i came here and testified at a previous meeting and i indicated that logistically this is not an impossibility. sure, it's a challenge, but it's not an impossibility. i also suggested keeping it small to begin with with the caveat that it's expandable as a system and, therefore, you can build a system that will be maybe servicing one department initially and subsequently will be expandable to serve as other departments and can be modified to accept protocols that other departments' computerized systems may be using that may be different than the system or protocol that the d.b.i. may be using. it sounds like it has to engage the planning department anyway,
8:31 am
but the other suggestion that i made at that time as well as keeping it small to begin with was to put a schedule together. i ask that we might be given some sort of a timetable of targets and when the targets would be met. so i'm going to take it today that the target is that we are going to be privy to an r.f.p. in the first week of january based on what i just heard. i don't think anything is going to happen between now and christmas. then i would ask please that at that time we would be provided with some sort of a schedule of how that's going to roll out over the year and what the target objective dates are. i would also like to suggest that somebody from the public and the people who are going to be affected by the efficiency of this system, that their input is part and parcel of the process because i think it's
8:32 am
fair to say right now they are not part of the process. it's very much on the inside and maybe i'm wrong about that, i'm open to be told otherwise but that's how it feels percentage-wise. if we can do that, i think maybe we can be looking at the end of next year and given a comment back that we have had done and i hope that will be the case. thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. >> commissioners, there is no doubt to try to set up a system to track permits everywhere is taking a long time. i will say one thing that the d.b.i. tracking system is really a good one. i use it very, very frequently. the other day i was at a meeting with the planning department and they were making comments about they could navigate around their site is nearly impossible. for d.b.i., the tracking system is very good. the rest of the city, the rest
8:33 am
of the departments, that's where the difficulty is in getting that system working. you think today they could do it just like that. as we can all see, that is not happening. i just want to comment that as far as d.b.i. is concerned, they have a good tracking system. thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. seeing none, next item. >> the next item is update on the status of capps. >> ok, yes, commissioners we talked about this briefly, the contact -- contract is scheduled to end on december 31. that contract will end. it's not going to be extended farther than december 31 as long as we get the final capps report. that is the status of the capps. the actual mayor's city administrators taking over the program on the actual earthquake management to find funds and things for this
8:34 am
program to go forward. president murphy: thank you. commissioners. public comments. i see none. next item. >> item 6 everyone update on any other activities factoring administration of the department. >> yes. i would like the commissioners to know that there will be some more staffing changes. we are making staffing changes on the first floor to better accommodate customers on the first floor and better organize the help desk for the customers for such things as just general help to separate the help needs from the actual processing need, similar to what planning has done with their public information counter on the first floor, we'll have a public information counter on the first floor across the disciplines. i'm putting that together with most of the staff with inspectors, make staffing it on the first floor with the help
8:35 am
of the clerks and the -- actually the 1408 department teches on the first floor. we will be moving the plan room up to the second floor. that is scheduled. we will be merging some staff functions up there to better service the project sponsors and commerce. so there will be some -- customers. so there will be some switching around within the department and we have some staffing positions, once we switch staff around within the department that we will be going out and pulling in more staff from the holdover list just so staff know we have some open requisitions now that are not filled that will be filled probably by january 15. president murphy: the holdover list, is that from every department in the city or from our list? >> the whole -- our clerks have a special condition on our clerks that they must have building inspection department administration for at least a year. and our inspectors are a
8:36 am
special breed. they have to come from the union list. right now there are no created lists left except for the plumbers that we are pulling from. so we're actually having to appoint provisional inspectors until d.h.r. comes up with some new testing procedures for the electrical and the building department lists. so we are appointing provisionally and bringing people back and we're asking staff that have been transferred to other departments if they would like to come back knowing that these will being permanent in the future. so we are looking at trying to bring back staff that are experienced within the department, but you will see some new faces as the staff rises up through the ranks and are going into other divisions, we're going to be bringing in entry-level people to be filling just like the kumatic is ready to go on line now. they're punching and handing out tickets and directing people to know where to go so
8:37 am
we can use our clerks to process permits. president murphy: that's what i was referring to earlier about the training, how much time are we spending on training these people that are switched from one job to another? i mean -- >> they have to be trained -- it takes -- well, most of our staff are cross-trained in some areas, but they're not cross-trained in the area of issuing permits. that's where our lack of training happens. and if clerks come from another department, say from building inspection into issuing permits, they have to work alongside another clerk to learn the fee schedule that needs to be charged on each permit. it takes them one to two months to do that. so that's an in-house training that has to take place one-on-one, side by side, so to speak. and the same thing for the position that they left. if someone goes into their position, it would be a side-by-side training and that's not the type of training for the clerks that you can learn outside of the department
8:38 am
because of how it's specialized for d.b.i., the electrical, the plumbing and inspectors normally have training and we send them to outside training classes for the knowledge for the codes. president murphy: commissioner hechanova. vice president hechanova: this may be a minor item, but from a standpoint of just trying to have the perception at least to the public of how we complete something, the category of like the signage on the fifth floor has been paper and it really does, from a standpoint, doesn't look as professional. i would like to see it and it's been that way for quite some time. i would have thought that would be something built into a budget to finish out the space. when i walk in there and i walk around, i have seen that all year long. and to me i just say why?
8:39 am
>> right. and i can answer that question. the system is ready to go live. we finally have gotten it programmed. we're in the final stages of testing it once it goes live. once the system goes live, all of those signs will be coming down, every single paper sign up there. the signage in the hallways and the elevators were supposed to be replaced by real estate. real estate lost our building manager. i'm not renegotiating, i'm bringing back up the meetings of our implementation team on the remodeling to remind them that they need to do this for us once we get everybody settled into the right place so all the paper signs will go away. we'll know who is on what floor and that is part of the bringing in some of the staff, too, so that we will have somewhat like greeters at first while we were implementing this
8:40 am
new technology. we're also implementing the selectron which is the intervoice response system for scheduling so people can call in and schedule inspections by the phone. all of this should be live and implemented by the end of this year. vice president hechanova: thank you. >> any other commissioner questions or -- president murphy: public comments on this? seeing none. >> item number seven, public comment. the b.i.c. will take public comment on matters within the commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.
8:41 am
>> good morning, commissioners. my name is jose morales and you have known me for a while and today is a very important day for me, being the last day of the year and still don't get my public hearing. today i'm going to be brief and to the point. i can prepare and i'm talking about the mutilation of our wonderful administrative bulletin serious 35 of 2002 of our 2007 building commission
8:42 am
who has abuse of authority of the present d.b.i. executives vivian day which in addition has been incapable to solve an easy case of that illegal house number 574 san jose avenue which we must remember it was assigned only for the brand-new unit to be on the third floor of the hotel and vertical extension of a duplex. but on december 9, 2004, the project was cancelled by the planning commission and upheld, upheld by the board of appeals and a rehearing at the board of appeals because it was preserved affordable housing as when dated by the will of the voters with proposition m. so this is so important that i
8:43 am
hope you will understand after two years that i'm coming here that the landlords were equally greedy attorneys, did not have jurisdiction, the attorneys and the landlord thought i did not have jurisdiction to stay in my affordable home. it's what it's all about, affordable housing, affordable growth, appealed to the superior court -- they appealed to the superior court and then to the california court of appeals and lost again in both courts. so what is the problem with no jurisdiction is in that documents of the court. the last thing i want to say is that i do want to ask for a moratorium on the new code that
8:44 am
they are trying to pass based on the lack of research, the new a.b. 335 is a flip over 180 degrees from the required construction to whatever is reasonable to change the house number shall not be denied. president murphy: thank you, mr. morales. >> we have to work together. president murphy: any further public comments? seeing none. >> seeing none, we move on to item number eight, discussion about d.b.i.'s statement of incompatible activities. >> yes. in your package you will see agenda item number eight this is d.b.i.'s statement of incompatible activities as designed by the ethics commission of the city of san francisco. this is the current statement of incompatible activities.
8:45 am
the staff and commissioners and board members are required every two years to take an update training on the statement of incompatible activities and submit it. we also in d.b.i., every staff member is required to file a form 700 whether they're a clerk in the finance department or an inspector. every single staff member is required to form, file a form 700 which would also list any gifts or anything that would be remotely connected with the statement, might be considered as incompatible activity. we also right now have in four requests from staff members just so that the commission knows, that have requested a waiver from some of the provisions so that they can work and train in their trades after work.
8:46 am
that's normally been granted by the ethics commission. i have discussed it with the ethics commission and they do not see a conflict of interest in that manner as long as they do not do did on city time or it interferes their work. this is just to train or teach at the colleges. that's been a normal procedure in the building department for many years. vice president hechanova: has there been any other request for waivers or advancement and determinations? >> not that i know of. waivers from the commissioners or waivers from the board members would not come through me, just staff members. vice president hechanova: i'm saying just staff. so we just have four? >> there is about four gentlemen that do teach, one in each of the trades and we do have someone that teaches at the local college. vice president hechanova: and has there been any complaints about this ethics statement of incompatibility?
8:47 am
has there been any complaints about any violations or anything? do we receive them or does the building department receive them or do people complain directly to the ethics commission? >> they can do either. they can also complain through the whistleblower program. there are several ways that the complaints do come to us. currently we have no complaints on file. president murphy: a city employee can now help his neighbor fix his deck without getting creamed? >> if it's on his own time, it's very clear about what they can do in here. it can't conflict with their city duties, in other words they can't help their neighbor and then go out and inspect the deck. we also have an opinion by city attorneys that inspectors are not supposed to work within their own districts where they
8:48 am
reside. so it's very, very clear that you're not really supposed to do something that you know is going to be in conflict with your job. president murphy: yeah, i understand it. i'm being facetious. i have read it. commissioners, i can understand why we don't get more people stepping up to the plate to serve on some of these commissions and committees once they hear about that form 700, they run. so public comments? seeing none. next item. >> seeing none, item number nine, review and approval of the minutes of the july 21, 2010 meeting. president murphy: do i have a motion. >> motion to approve. >> second. >> all in favor. >> aye.
8:49 am
>> the minutes are approved. are all opposed? item number 10, any public comment? president murphy: i see none. >> item number 10, commissioner's questions and matters. item 10 a is inquiries to staff. >> can we include in our minutes or something now any pending future items because i have a few of them. i think we wanted to revisit the a.b. 35 to get a staff policy and procedure in addition, in conjunction with the notice itself so we know who is staff and what the process was. >> a written office policy and procedural will take 60 days to produce. >> i want to make sure that's -- it was brought up. also we, i still have an outstanding request for a
8:50 am
hearing about our, how we deal with bed bugs and those type of code enforcement issues. >> i understand we're going to have something in january on that, is that correct? >> my understanding it's supposed to be a joint presentation by code enforcement and the department of public health. >> great, perfect. thank you. >> other inquiries to staff? >> yes. president murphy: commissioner hechanova. vice president hechanova: i know that this has continued to be a key issue on some of the validity of signed documents. do we have a database that basically can make a confirmation on whether the signature on any of the drawings and/or documents are valid? >> no. i think we count on people
8:51 am
under penalty of perjury. i mean that's what we do. president murphy: commissioner lee. commissioner lee: i think this is more directed to you, i'm afraid. the nomination committee agreed to meet about three months from now to review the people that needed waivers to see if they had obtained the waivers. could we also in the meantime send out an announcement to the folks that you normally send out announcements to about the open seat on the code advisory committee, board of examiners? >> sure. ken cleaveland, right. >> a big building, owner, manager, high-rise. commissioner lee: maybe we can review applications at that meeting also. >> so everyone knows, now the mayor's office is requesting a
8:52 am
quarterly report of all committees or commissions that commissions appoint and they want to know who those people are. they're requesting a lot of information. so that is going to be a quarterly report that is going to have to be submitted. >> before the end of the year or before january 3? >> last month. >> quarterly. >> actually. so that will be bringing that item up quarterly and we have sort of agreed to meet with the nominations committee quarterly if there are any issues. president murphy: one other thing i neglected to mention when the president's report, someone that was very instrumental in getting people together in d.b.i. and getting people talking and people that were observing this from the
8:53 am
outside, bringing people together and talking and moving forward as far as jobs that they're hired and paid to do was jeremy over here. and i would like to thank him for that. he was the real george mcgovern of diplomacy, so thank you. >> ok, do we have any public comment on 10 a? item 10 b is future meetings and ageneral dass. our next meeting is scheduled for the third wednesday of january. commissioner hechanova? vice president hechanova: has there been potential or proposed date for the joint planning and -- >> small business, that was put off until january and no date yet. i will let you know as soon as i know anything. i'll contact those people
8:54 am
again. i think once they tried during the holidays and decided that wasn't going to work, it kind of fell through the cracks. once the holidays are over that, will get back on track. vice president hechanova: thank you. >> any public comment on future meetings or agendas? seeing none. item number 11, adjournment. >> motion to adjourn. >> second. >> all those in favor? >> aye. >> it is now 11:25. i'm robert chief and i'm the
8:55 am
park's supervisor in the parks in the sunset district. i've been working here for 3 years. we are 60-70 street below street level. the 64 acre park. the park is divided into 2 sections we are in the stern area. when you get over to pine lake meadow and pine lake, pine lake is considered a natural area. in 1847, the green family came out here, back then this was kind of an empty canyon and sand dun area. they claimed this property. in 1892. george green who's a second generation built the truckdaro club house. there was a hotel then. it was said this was the place
8:56 am
to go if you were weary of the dirty city and the police. there were a couple of gun fights the front door has bullet holes. i don't ever repair them. 1931 stig mond bought the property from the green family. she donated it to the city of san francisco and had a specification, i'm giving it to the city that will be used forever for the enjoyment forever of the people of the city of san francisco. it has ever since. every summer the stern grove association in san francisco rec and parks put on 10 free concerts. usually people come out at 10 in the morning it's a family affair. everybody is on the lawn with picnics and it's free. anybody can come out. it's a great way to spend a
8:57 am
sunday. >> goes to 1-2 in the afternoon and runs until 5. [music]. thanks to the stern grove association they renovated the concert meadow. it used to be a rolling grafsy area. put in a new stage and stage building. they put in terraces. we get from 8,000 to 12,000 people. and the meadow next to the concert meadow is full of people even though they can't see the music they hear it. i walked into the meadow several times and they don't even care. we do have literally events going on day and night. the concert association has kids days during the week. the performers come out for hundred 200 kids.
8:58 am
now, the truckadero truck house gets rented out for weddings and retirement. the croquet clubs and horse shoes. 2 play grounds, tennis courts. we have from 25 to a hundred dogs here. it's like bisons going across the mid west. there are so many dogs they are covering the ground cht it's a get together. all the dog walkers know each other. if you go to pine lake day camp now, you will see 50 kids there. the r directors are wonder.
8:59 am
>> the pine lake is natural. they take of the area around the lake. they plant natives that are drought tolerant. one that stands the dry summers here. the whole park is under going quite a bit of reconstruction. they will renovate the trails around the lake. and the big project is the capital project for pine lake meadow. they are going to returf the dog run and the meadow by the day camp. we are looking for a very busy fall. by the spring of next year should have major renovations to the mark thal make it an outstanding park. i don't ever refer to it as my park. all the parks belong to all the people. this park belongs just as much to the families in the bay view sdrishth as it does to the
198 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
SFGTV: San Francisco Government Television Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on