never before in the history of the cubs have people been able to watch this race from the shore. imagine -- it is like going to the basketball game with no fans. we will have now a live sporting event of sailing. there will be literally thousands of people that are going to come out. a lot of them will never have known what sailing is before, but they will walk away, going, "wow, this is incredible." thank you again. we're looking forward to rolling up the sleeves. we have to get some of the space going and talking to people. but here we go. thank you. [applause] >> thank you all for coming. we will do questions off-camera. thanks. or off-stage.

>> good morning. today is thursday, february 3, 2011. this is a special meeting of the building inspection commission. at this time, ask everyone to turn off all electronic devices. the first item on the agenda is roll call. [roll call] commissioner lee is excuse, and

commissioner romero is expected. we have a quorum. before we begin, i would like to announce that item 6 regarding 565 marina boulevard is being removed from the agenda. we will take public comment under the item when it comes up. item two, president's announcements. commissioner murphy: he may not be able to make it. >> any public comment on the president's announcement? item three, public comment. the bic will take public comment on matters within the commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.

seeing none, we move to item four, reports, discussion, and possible action to approve the proposed budget of the department of building inspection for fiscal year 2011/2012. >> pamela leaven, deputy director of administrative services. i have a brief presentation, and then i'll take questions. the meeting will be the 16th of february, and the budget is actually due to the mayor's office on the 22nd. i just had a couple of slides to put up, and i gave you guys

copies. i wanted to just start by looking at priorities in terms of funding for this next fiscal year. the first one is to continue to restore the number of positions. the proposed #of positions exceeds the 2009-2010 level. i was looking at the budget today and looking at the big line items. 57% of our proposed budget is personnel costs, so i will go over that, but that is the highest priority. the second is the growing demand for permanent inspection services. technology improvements benefit customer service and provide transparency. these are in the vpr report as

being the priorities that were set when that was done. we have to ensure that they are cost recovering, improve service delivery, and to improve the fiscal health of the department. i always like to start with revenue. i know this does not project very well, but that is why you have a copy of it. the green line is the revenues. they are the intergovernmental agreements that we have with transbay to do plan reviews and inspections. we are going to do some items, very small items for the port.

those are the major items, so i was trying to separate those ongoing revenues that are the meat and potatoes from the mou's, and we are projecting a in terms of growth a small increase. we do not really know what is going to come through the pipeline. we are getting -- people come into the development unit and ask. they are canceling their plans out. we are building our budget to show a small increase, and those increases are in what we call

charges per services. it is not that we are having the fees go up. it is not that we are having any of the charges go up. it is the revenue from things like building inspection, plan review. you can see that we are doing quite well in terms of our revenues over what we were worried about when the economy was bad, but as i said, we are trying to be realistic in terms of our projection. commissioner murphy: can i ask a question? what is our balance? >> the balance is about 54 days, so it is about -- if all revenue stops because of an emergency, we could sustain about 54 days

of expenses. commissioner murphy: we could bear those for 54 days? >> no, that is only paying salaries. i was thinking this morning about what other kinds of expenses we would have, and eventually, a lot of expenses -- in personnel, only over time is reimbursed, so we would have to eat the rest, but there are some property expenses that are minor. during the broadway rockslide, we did barricades'. we did geotechnical services we had to pay for. there is kind of a gamma -- gamut. i think there is something that had to do with the wood for shoring. that would feed into that 54 days, so we are much better off than we were several years ago. even last year, we started off

with -- commissioner murphy: how are we compared to three years ago? >> three years ago, -- we are greater than three years ago. our lowest was 500,000 that we went into 2009-2010 with. we went in with $553,000, and we are up to wear around between 3 million or 4 million. remember, years and years ago -- commissioner murphy: i remember. >> yes. commissioner murphy: let's get back to the first page there. it says, "restore code enforcement outreach for the sro programs to levels prior to the downturn." can you explain that a little

bit to me? what were the levels then? how much money were we giving them then, and how much money are we giving them now? >> you are talking about actually the report. several years ago, i think three years ago, we were giving them $750,000 into the sro. then, that that decrease, and the reason that the decrease was that was an add back by the mayor. i do not know if you have ever been to hearings, but everything slides really quickly, so what happened was when we were balancing our budget, it was

750,000, and this brings us back to that. it is consistent with -- when i say it is to restore to those levels, we have been doing that with a lot of the rest of the budget. we thought it was prudent. >> the idea within the department is that we are financially ok? we can start spending again? it seems to me like apart from five or six big projects that are starting in san francisco or have started, we have some big checks. the small permits have not increased that much, or at least that is what i'm hearing from the stakeholders out there. is there any truth to that?

could you confirm, the night? >> i can answer that question. we have actually seen in increase in the smaller homeowner permits. not so much the contractor permits, but the homeowner permits are coming in more. people doing more kitchen and bath remodels on their own. not so much with the contractors. we are issuing about 95% of our permits over the counter, and they are busy from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 at night with people waiting, so we are busy, and they are issuing permits. i can give you at the next meeting the actual figures. contractor vs -- versus homeowner versus developer. commissioner murphy: i would

like some facts on that at our next meeting. when we get down the page a little further, the disaster recovery unit. >> right. this is being dictated by the various events, like these 10 or 12 committees that are involved with the disaster recovery, and they have asked us to form a unit. the building inspector -- was it two building inspectors? the unit will consist of at least two building inspectors with a disaster coordinator and that the person. we are attending between six or eight meetings a month on disaster coordination throughout the city without the implementation of the mayor's director for the new committee on the mandatory program, so we need to reform the unit.

it is not a new unit. we have any emergency preparedness team at one point. it was disbanded when we had to start making the cuts in 2008- 2009, and we need to reform the unit and get it back into operation. we have been told that we cannot get grant money to do this, and the department did -- how can i say it -- find a position or two positions in the past. what we're going to do with this unit -- it is going to be funded by the strong motion earthquake fee fund that is set aside for just this type of work. commissioner murphy: i understand that. i just want the other commissioners that are not familiar with it to hear about it. i know we have the command center and trailer and all that. i'm just asking a question. that is all. >> when you roll the budget up, there is a lot of things that are not jumping out at me, but

there is an abatement of reimbursement backing up those expenses along the top, so that we are prepared. commissioner murphy: can we go a little further down the page? improved plan review. how much is this construction on the first floor lobby area -- how much is that going to cost? >> -- > what are you referring to? commissioner murphy: the renovation on the lobby, the entrance. >> where is that? >> it is on page -- commissioner murphy:

commissioner walker, you will have ample opportunity to talk when i'm finished. >> page 7. >> thank you. >> we have a place holder in here. we have a plan. we have to work with the department of real estate. it has to go through them and dpw, and there are markups for what we would get if we were doing it on our own, so we have to work through with them, so this is a place holder. but what this does is it will allow the be informed as you go in -- that is the information desk. people will have that. it will help to facilitate the

help desk portion, which is more of the technical stuff, and then, it will have the actual intake downstairs. but to the extent that the funding -- we always have to put a place holder in, and if any funding is left, then we are much better off. commissioner murphy: i'm just wondering if it is going to cost $1 million each floor. is this going to cost a million bucks? >> that is the best estimate that we have. >> we have worked with dpw, and estimates are coming in at around $1 million, but that also includes all the furniture. it is just the renovations, and there are some things that have to be done on the first floor. we have leveling that has to be done. we have a floor that is not quite level, so we have to bring in construction crews to

actually leveled the floor out so we are meeting all our ada issues that we are not meeting right now. it goes to the point of bringing all the furniture up to ergonomic safety levels that were nonexistent more or less when the original design of the building was built on the first floor, so we are having a lot of ergonomic problems with existing furniture. this million dollars includes the furniture, the construction, and the complete renovation without any advance money from real-estate. this is just cost to the department. it is also project management for the department. commissioner murphy: does the director have any say in the cost? we are paying. >> yes, we are paying, but we have to use dpw to do the

construction costs in a city- owned building. we are at the safety estimates that were given, but we also go out to bid for the furniture on the cost. commissioner murphy: well, it just sticks in my craw a little bit that they charge so much for the construction, but they do very little. the structure is there. they rip out a few walls and put in a few lights. i'm just concerned about the people who are writing the check. >> the million was also if there was sufficient funding to start working on other floors where there has not been anything done. as you know, the plans room is moved up to the second floor, so

there are some things that needed to be done there. we will have to have something more -- we will have to have more detail by june 1 in order for this to go through the budget analyst process. so, you know, we can give you an update of where we are at what time. commissioner murphy: i think we should compare per square foot cost of this construction and the proposal to our real estate department. we would all love to have an open checkbook. anyway, that is enough of that. can you go to page three?

we are supposedly bringing back some people that were laid off a few years ago. how many, and what departments will they be going to? >> the net increase in staff is 13 fte's, which to the extent that whenever you have a new person, a new head, you cannot budget for the full year. so the majority of the issuance would come in in the -- in september. we have -- the majority of the inspectors -- well, some of the inspectors -- we have not exhausted the list, but there is still quite a bit of -- a long

list of clerks. there is a long list of -- commissioner murphy: that is the key word there, clerks. we have been waiting for, it seems like a year, clicks. we have talked about this at many meetings. i would just like to clarify if we are getting any help there. >> sorry, i'm trying -- commissioner murphy: the most important people going in are the stakeholders, the people writing the checks. i keep getting complaints from homeowners and small contractors who have to stand in line for two and a half hours. i would like to know if we are getting some people back there. if you do not have that answer today, i'm not putting you on the spot here. i would like it at our next meeting.

>> if we could continue through the presentation, this is being brought up later in the presentation, so she is jumping around from slight to slide, so if we would let her get through the presentation, maybe some of these questions would be answered. i know that that is in the presentation. >> can we do that and ask questions at the end? commissioner murphy: yeah, well, i'm not finished yet. >> in terms of the clerks -- commissioner murphy: i'm just going through a quick full review. >> i know, but can we have the presentation? commissioner murphy: commissioner walker, i will give you a chance to talk in a couple of minutes. >> the 1410s, which are principal clerks -- we will have one for the fifth floor and one

for the sixth floor in code enforcement. 14 08, the majority of our clerks, we will have one for the first floor, one for the second, to for the fifth and two for the sixth. then, 1406 , the lower level, are one for the first floor, one for the second floor, a two for the fifth floor, and two for the six floor. then, 14 06 -- sorry, i do not know why i have two for 1406, but it would be two for the first floor and two for the second. that is 814, 14 bodies.

we also just recently were working on a promotion -- promotional reviewfo for 5 1408's and 2 1410's, so we are trying to bring in people who are able to work in a bunch of different settings so you can move them if you need to between similar types of skill sets and move them between floors if you have to. commissioner murphy: ok. i have a couple more questions, and then i'm going to let up. on page four, it says down at the bottom, the carry forward,

491,000 -- what does that mean? explain that to me. >> when we finish a fiscal year, one of the first things we do is look at what are their bills that are outstanding that we need to pay the following year? without going into a lot of the accounting mumbo jumbo, we basically carry forward obligation and carry forward the funding so that you then can pay for the obligation. for instance, let's say an entity -- the contractors are a good example. they provide their service, but all their bills are not in as of the end of june, so we have to pay them, and when the books closed for -- you know, when you're, you cannot pay them out of that year, so we carry

forward that money. the reason we put that in to this presentation is because when you look at what is called the revised budget, it is in the ordinance that -- when you put in the revised budget, it has any change that occurs and carries forward that change. we never see this for the following year. we have no idea, and we hope, you know, that we do not have to carry forward money and carry forward any obligations. that is why it is one-time in nature, and it does confuse the presentation. commissioner murphy: ok. i have no more questions. other questions? commissioner walker: i would just like to hear the presentation, and then, maybe. >> ok, so, this chart that is on

the overhead -- we talked a little bit about this already, but what we have done here is separate whether the expenses -- what are the expenses that we incur or project to incur because of the intergovernmental agreement, and the regular ongoing expenditures that we have for ongoing projects. so we are still below the level of 2007-2008 in terms of our expenditures, so we are, as far as i'm concerned, doing really well because we have not had this massively huge growth up to 2010-2011. in 2011-2012, i want to talk about why we are proposing this, and we talked some what about this.

-- somewhat about this. i think i mentioned that 67% of our budget is staff. we are proposing an increase from the projected, which is, as of december 31, six-month projection. we are budgeting at 9.6% increase, and that is two components. one component is not controllable by our department, and that is the annualization of any of the changes that have been made in agreements with the union or one-time payouts, or there are projected to be significant -- somewhere in the 15% or more, increase in the