the 2009 permit tracking system was [inaudible] in 2002. the five was i was with commissioner walker on that effort. it is an incredible tool. you can get a tremendous amount of information on any address, the status of a permit, the time that it took from on hold to release hold, so it is a great tool, but as any technology will lead you to, it is only as strong as its weakest link. it would be on hold for a long time. so you can tap into an incredibly sophisticated system that will remind you that it is on hold for months, which, as you know, there is a great article in today's paper, and it

is a different entity, and dbi has no control over it, but we pay their bills. we can hold them accountable. there is no accountability. use of the drawings, and you are almost afraid to contact the planner. that needs to change. the city is poised for tremendous growth, particularly in the year 2012. as a structural engineer, i see it. i have done a barometer of economic growth, and 9 cents the action. we have had a fairly weak two years. planning -- that is a move, even though there is no work for them. imagine their performance next year when we do have work. something has to change. this is the timebomb -- we have

a new mayor, a new board. there is moderation, activity, a sense that we are open for business. let us do our part to force planning to act and act quickly. thank you. commissioner murphy: thank you. next speaker please. >> hi, commissioners. i do want to comment on the aspect of public service. when you come in, it is amazing how many people actually walk in, and they first come to the information counter, but they seem to wander off. they just see the one sign, and i think it could be bigger than what it is. the people are really helping these folks. there is two types of application forms -- form 3 and

form 8, ones that we are all familiar with. 3 by the over-the-counter. it is what happens when even if a death addition or replacement for the side, or i saw someone the other day where it was a girl raj girla g -- it was a garage being demolished and a new one being built. speaker rodriguez said they get stuck there forever and eventually end up going to dbi. my concern is with the former 3's. they are as booked magic supposed to get assigned to a plan checker. they should be able to get straight to a plan checker and

not be waiting. i think they should go to someone who can take it up to the fifth floor and get approved. i had a situation where the other day, i went up to get approval, and it was supposed to go to the cannibal planchette, and they said they could not take it over there and had to take it back down to the second floor. by that time, it was about 3:00 in the afternoon, and it did not get done. that should not happen. the idea that it is creating work, creating more income for the city and for everybody out there, the idea is to get the permits out asap, and not have this one go down, especially for something like this where we had to do that. we spent more than 15 or 20 minutes looking at this with some lighting, and instead, we are at the second floor. i think these things could be done in a better way than what they are right now. thank you.

commissioner murphy: further public comment? >> san francisco coalition for response to growth. president, commissioners, director, i would like to dwell on a personal experience as a customer going into dbi. it was a small, over-the-counter permit. it did not require any architectural drawings, so i figured the process would be simple enough. let me take you through the steps a little bit, and i will predicate my remarks by saying that all of the staff had -- at dbi were really very helpful and

courteous, but the process just was a little strange to me in some respects, so let me dwell on this -- after i messed with the plan checker and the permit was for replacing some kitchen cabinets and some paint internally -- he approved it very quickly, and then, i was asked to go to fire, and the plan checkered checked with his supervisor, did i have to do that, and, yes, i was directed over to fire, which i had to queue up for at least half an hour. the process there seemed very strange because fire had nothing to do with it. there were no internal changes to doors or windows, and after that was signed off, i now wish to pay. the hour and 10 minutes that i was already in-house suddenly became another hour and a half because i had to now resubmit

information at the pace station and wait around for this hour and a half before it was all completed. so i came away just wondering why this payment process was so complicated because i had to resubmit a lot of information as well as the information required around the czech in the mail. i would ask your commissioners to look at the efficiency, and you referred to it, the service, and how that can be improved in 2011. i would appreciate you doing that, has a customer who comes in and out of dbi for a permit occasionally. commissioner murphy: thank you. any further public comment? seeing none, commissioners? commissioner hechanova: part of our efficiency in the building department that is always

intertwined with our nemesis, the planning department, in a category that the presence and accountability seems to keep them somewhat removed from being more immediately accessible, if not responsive to those issues that continue to become planning issues that they seem to stymie the processing of these permits. hopefully, in the operational efficiency for this coming year and further, the -- that the planning department does take a more active and responsible role of accountability that once there is the component of the planning review that has been performed, it is always part of their responsibility to also be timely and responsive with some

of these permit processing, because, face it, it is customer service. it is really being responsive and getting it done quickly is going to also yield benefits to the city and income stream. that is my opinion of where the planning department does have to have a greater presence and active role. it is really perplexing back they are adjacent to a building department and sometimes getting them to respond is almost very cumbersome. commissioner mar: i know we are all looking forward to that joint meeting with the small business commission, but i really feel that the next one should definitely be with the planning commission. which we should talk to, but i think one of the problems with

them is that, you know, this is a very political town. one person close the great project is another neighbor's great, you know, problem. they are susceptible -- i think that is partially their role. they do have to listen to whether the project are reasonable and whether they are well thought out and things like that. i think we should look forward to meeting with them and look for definitely to aligning our work, which i think is part of the spirit it is ridiculous that there has been more department of collaboration, and our systems do not all work together. if you want something approved in one department, the of the department should know about it. it was already pointed out it is

not just planning, but the assessor's office is the same thing. i did some remodeling years ago, and yet, every year, i get a letter from the assessor's office asking when i will finish with my project. i have called them. i have written a nice letters. i have responded every single time, but i do not want to just beat up on the planning department. there is plenty of other departments we could beat up on as well. commissioner walker: i think that this is one of the primary reasons why we all decided to do this new system, to make sure that we could interface and have the same system as planning, the assessor's office, within which, we will be able to get reports to see who is going to be responsible for the delay.

we do not have that now. what we know is that it goes over there. we do not know where it is or why. this system will make them put in white, what is happening, and will let the department heads, anybody going online figure out who is holding the ball, and i think that that, coupled with our -- now, we are the ones coordinating the fee collection -- this office together, and the goal now is to push it along, and i hope that all of us can push together to make this happen. nine years, 10 years is too long for this process to go on. i think that it sounds like we are all committed to that, and that is a good thing. thank you. commissioner murphy: thank you, commissioner. there is a joint meeting in the works right now. >> and we could go over these.

commissioner murphy: it takes them a little longer there. takes them an hour and a half to watch "60 minutes." >> now, now. >> i'd make, questions -- commissioner's questions and matters. commissioners may make inquiries of staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the commission. seeing none, on to item 8b, future meetings and agendas. at this time, the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and/or determine the items that could be placed on the agenda at the next meeting and other future meetings of the building inspection commission. commissioner hechanova: and anything on the nominations?

requirement? upcoming at least. >> nothing. the only thing i want to let everyone know is you have gotten an agenda for monday night's meeting, but i was called yesterday evening, that there is a slight change. it is very minor, adding something to do with zoning to one of the items, and i will be sending out an amended agenda this afternoon. just watch for that. commissioner murphy: we are all anticipating quite a long meeting monday night. >> a lot of items. our next meeting, the regular meeting will be february 16. commissioner hechanova: next week. two weeks. >> next regular meeting. >> is there any public comments on those items? commissioner murphy: seeing none. >> item 9, adjournment.

commissioner walker: move to adjourn. >> second. commissioner walker: all in favor? we are now adjourned.

>> thanks for coming today. we are announcing are temporary homeowner's property tax reduction program. this is what most assessor's up and down the state are doing. homeowners are reliable -- of all property owners are eligible for a temporary, 1-year property-tax assessment reduction if they believe or if we believe dave -- the assess the value has fallen above their market value, which means that the value would be lower than the market value. in general, homeowners who are eligible, chances are, they purchased homes after 2003. we do get applicants who have owned homes since 1995 or earlier. in general, anybody who is owned their home prior to 2003, they are doing well, which is good news. chances are the market value is higher than the assessed value,

meaning the property appreciate it. people we are able to offer little relief for, the sad news is, their homes have depreciated. there will be a little bit of relief for them. in general, last year, we saw 6400 applicants in comparison to four years ago when we had 248 requests. the form a simple. it is one page. name, telephone number, e-mail, and the address you are applying for. if you can give us sales in formation of similar types of homes, we do hope you can give us that. if you cannot come maternity leave blank and sign it. e-mail or fax it to us -- if you cannot give us that, leave it blank and sign it. e-mail or fax it was.

tenderloin downtown, south of market, mission bay, and south beach. those were many of the new high- rise condominiums that went in to market the last four or five years. we have seen a significant amount of depreciation in those areas. gaviria that has seen the largest value drop is -- the other area that has seen the largest volume drop is the outer mission, amazon, those areas have seen the largest percentage drop. it is where we have been hit hardest with foreclosures. we make sure that we take an extra look. we proactively have been reviewing every home that was purchased after 2000. even though we think eligibility is for people up to 2003, we review any homeowner who purchased after 2000. that was roughly about 15,000 homeowners. of that, reduced -- no one had

to apply or call us. we did this on our own. we reduced 10,000 of those homeowners. roughly, you have 10,000 reductions that we did on our own. 1700 reductions were done through this application process. 5000 time shares is how you get to the 17,000 number. just to give you a comparison, it is quite a bit in san francisco. these are huge numbers, larger than the dot com bust. alameda and santa clara did about 1000 come a tenfold. -- 1000, tenfold. we are doing better than our counterparts in other parts of the bay area. i feel fortunate. the tax reduction was about 21 million in taxes that were not collected. 21 million in taxes were not

collected. that is a significant number. it is out of a $6.5 billion budget. overall, the difference to the city is still rather small compared to what it meant to many of the other counties in other areas. let me stop there and take questions. >> [inaudible] >> 6462. of those, we actually reviewed only 4177. many of those were already reviewed. we have actively reviewed them. some of them were not eligible. >> [inaudible] >> anybody who has gotten a reduction, they don't need to apply. we will look at it again. if you have gotten a reduction

through an appeal or through our office, they don't need to apply again. they will be reviewed. they may want to apply because maybe they want to give us information we don't know. they are free to do that. that will be reviewed as part of that process. in general, they don't need to submit paperwork if they already got a reduction last year. >> [inaudible] >> well, i think because it is just flat, the market has not rebounded and gone up. we will probably see the same number of people deserve reductions last year. i think it will be comparable. traditionally, an economic recovery is like a v. this is more like a u.

we're at the bottom of it right now. my feeling is we are going to see, you know, a very unusual real-estate market in san francisco. it will be flat and not appreciate a whole lot right now. the number people who are eligible is probably similar to last year. i bet we will give about the same number of reductions this year as we did last year. it will not be that much different. >> [inaudible] >> anybody that was reviewed -- everybody in san francisco got a letter from us in july. they were told what their assessed value was. there were told that they got a reduction. if they got a reduction based on the letter, they don't need to reapply. what people do is we will review applicants. the deadline is march 31. all 17,000 who got reductions will be reviewed automatically. everyone will get notified again in july. we will not talk to anybody

prior to that. everyone else will be getting the standard notification in july. >> [inaudible] you review these every year. >> every year. the reductions we review every year. as the market appreciates, we may take their assessments up based on what the market value is. they may go all the way back up to the factor value. it may go up partially higher. obviously, that is what he would see. you would see a step over the years to include the appreciation based on what the market is feeling. right now, we are not seeing a whole lot of appreciation. chances are, the assessment will be a little bit different than last year. the original purchase applies plus whatever the inflation factor was on an annual basis. in general, up to 2%. we had a negative inflation

factor for the first time last year. everybody got a reduction last year. >> [inaudible] >> this year, cpi based on the final number we saw, is. 5% positive. it is still well below 2%. -- is .5% positive. it is still well below 2%. the economy is still rather flat. >> [inaudible] >> everybody who does not get a reduction will get a .5% increase in their assessment. that is just a proximate. it will probably be pretty close to that. we can show you the website. we follow the same website.

it is the state cpi. it is a tracking mechanism for the state. >> [inaudible] >> i think there will vote to finalize in the next month or two. i think the number is done. >> overall, when all is said and done, what is the amount that you're going to receive [inaudible] >> for reductions, it will really just depend on how much your property might have depreciated or appreciate id. some areas where maybe there was a 5% or 3%, the good news in san francisco, we have not seen a few drops we saw in other parts of the bay area, like solano, or properties dropped 50%. you don't want that. you want your property to

appreciate. that is the goal. it might be $50, $100, maybe a few hundred dollars. it and will not be anything huge -- it will not be anything huge. >> [inaudible] >> over last year, it was a $21 million difference. because of the temporary reductions in homeowners values, there was $21 million that was not collected by the county. let's put that in context of the $6.5 billion budget. >> [inaudible] >> the total property tax collected is about $2 billion. overall, we are doing quite well. >> [inaudible] >> overall, property-tax as have done extremely well the last five, 10 years. we have seen huge increases overall. >> [inaudible]

>> no idea. if i did, i should be in las vegas placing a bet, or should be in new york making more money than i am here. the controller's office is probably tracking it more than us. we don't know. we have seen -- we have seen several governments pumped $1 trillion into the economy. it is a huge amount of money. we have seen some improvements, but not the ones they were hoping for. great. ok. thanks, everybody.

i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. i give a lot of tours through the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban

setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in this 317 acres. the park, as a general rule, is heavily used in the mornings and the evenings. one of the favorite places is up by the upper reservoir because dogs get to go swim.