the agenda. i deal with dbi on a regular basis. just some feedback that might be relevant to the discussion. it was said that there were six, eight people coming back. the category was not specific, but maybe we could see an increase in the number of mechanical engineers. the people that i talk to, staff that i talk to, where they see the gaping holes, the people that are in the trenches -- their observations are the ones that are responded to and that is where people are brought back in. training and all of that good stuff for the systems is

important, but i hope their feedback is engaged. if we have to squander 5 $5 to refresh the servers, do not argue about it. it is not worth getting into a discussion. in million dollars sounds high to me. i would like to get specifics but i cannot get to it. they need to protect their system, so let them spend whatever they need. it is called a risk-management. we do not want to find ourselves with our systems down. the flexibility with employees we talked about earlier, it is a better usage of personnel, but there are some qualified engineers and stop that will not be able to be shifted around. thank you. commissioner murphy: any further

speakers on this? seeing none. >> item five. update and discussion regarding the impact of ada requirements on small businesses and dbi's role.9 commissioner walker: do we need to approve this budget? ok. possible action to approve the proposed budget. >> we could have action where you ask for more information to be brought back. we have heard the budget twice and we will vote on this in february. we need five votes to approve. commissioner murphy: can i hear from counsel on that? >> city attorney's office. what ian said is correct. you need two hearings on the

budget, approved the budget by at least five boats. -- votes. commissioner walker: thank you for that clarification. >> item 5? óhis there a presenter for item? >> dbi can give a short presentation and what has happened with ada and our

partnership with the small business association, the mayor's office of disability. we had a press conference that was organized by supervisor chu. we did commit to providing any and all information, if small businesses come to us, we will help them with some of their problems. we are working in conjunction with the small business association to put out fires regarding what you actually need to address on ada issues, when you need to address them, how you need to address them. we will go more into this in or joint meeting next monday evening. there is a presentation for that. we also' from the mayor's office of disability, carla johnson, who can also tell you what we are doing in conjunction with the

departments. >> good morning, commissioners. carla johnson, mayor's office of disability. good to see you all again. we are certainly supportive of dbi's effort to get the word out about this important topic. we participated in the meetings with supervisor to's office. there is obviously concerned about small businesses especially making sure that they get the correct information, accurate information, timely information and have the tools they need to comply with the americans with disabilities act. it is kind of an interesting discussion. the building department enforces the california building code, which has a lot of access provisions built into it.

when somebody is building a new building or remodeling an existing building, a lot of these lawsuits that we have been seeing are in existing buildings, particularly smaller businesses that may not have undertaken any remodeling in recent years. the department of building inspection is in kind of a difficult position of not being able to enforce the americans with disabilities act. the americans with disabilities act is actually a civil-rights matter particularly. it is a civil matter that works its way through the courts when people file lawsuits, very different from building permits. so what supervisor chu has been doing, vivian, regina has been doing, is putting together some informational bulletin to let small business know some of the resources that are out there. there is specifically said bill

16078. this was a measure that was put on the bill to raise the bar, to increase the knowledge and expertise on behalf of the design professionals who give small business owners the advice they need. it also raises the bar for the building department by requiring there be a cas inspector, and these important measures in bill 16078 gives small business owners a tool to use services to about the way their business, put together a plan on what the barriers are, what it may cost to remove those barriers. b84÷if a small business owner us those services of a cas

inspector and then is unfortunately faced with a lawsuit, it gives the business owner the ability to put this civil action on hold for 90 days as they tried to work out their issues and avoid the courts. so a lot of the courts -- reports talk about financial incentives, whether they are tax deductions, funds that can be used to remove barriers for your business. so i am pleased to hear the commission is interested in this subject. commissioner murphy: thank you. i have a question for our director. how many ada-qualified inspectors do we have on staff right now? >> we have one cas in specter

right now, as required by the bill. -- inspector right now, as required by the bill. we are also putting money into the training budget. that training is very expensive.  certify a s inspector. is around $30,000. it is expensive, we are required to do it, it is state law, and we have put that into our training budget. we have several accessed disability specialists on staff. they are now cas inspectors, but they are trained in the ada issues. it is also mandated our building inspectors have eight hours of

required training to be about access, disability access. commissioner murphy: so when you say we have a contractor, they may not be certified? >> we do have certified access specialists, but all of our current staff is trained in the 88 issuescs>u -- a d a issues. we also have a disabled section that we are putting together disabled access specialist. commissioner murphy: has the training program been implemented yet? >> not from cas inspectors yet. they are holding training in ventura. we do not want to send anybody down there yet. commissioner murphy:

commissioner walker? commissioner walker: thank you for the attention. i have heard a lot from small business owners from the mission and south of market that someone is doing a lot of these lawsuits, as you said, existing businesses that have not engaged in tenant improvements at all. i heard about it -- just to give some background to folks out there. this is a good response in try to get this small business commission and mayor's office of disability, and our department, to take issues on disability and access seriously, but also provide the right information to business owners about what those requirements are. so thank you for doing this. look forward to an even more current update for our joint meeting, which i think is february 7, monday night at 5:00, for the joint small

business commission and building commission. so thank you, carla. >> one other point that i meant to make, there are other resources available in the community, collaborative resources with the independent living resources of san francisco, to mention one agency that has really worked in the past to do outreach and to be a research for technical expertise as well. commissioner murphy: commissioner had to nova? -- hechanova? commissioner hechanova: pond unilateral compliance, there is no gap right now. that is a challenge. >> there is a challenge to reform the california building code to make it match as closely as possible the americans with

disabilities act. that is an effort that has been underway since 1994. in the future, there will be a day where if you qualify for the california building code, you have that safe harbor confirmation that you will also comply with civil-rights legislation and the americans with disabilities act. commissioner hechanova: will that be a topic on monday's presentation? >> i think there will be a discussion on the differences between the california requirement and the federal requirement. there still is a gap there that has not closed yet. ?[tñwe will be discussing that n monday. >> it is a long topic. i will reserve that for monday. commissioner murphy: ok, public comment.

>> bob planthold. i am someone who needs and benefits from a accessibility. >d s item i see sometimes a lack of -- i am going to phrase it as common sense -- on these issues. you are talking about a joint agenda. the way it is set up now, it is at the end of a very long meeting monday night. whether they are a customer or somebody that can provide access services, you have many other items on the agenda. it is within the prerogative of the chair to alter an agenda item and to move it up as reasonable consideration. i would ask that if this is so important and lengthy, have it early, so those who have an

interest can attend. i am talking common sense. you have heard about training, field checkers, but some of these businesses that are being sued, they have had to get permits for some of the work that was done. the food-service industry had a new kitchen equipment, had to get permits. it got sued because there was a step up to get in. the doorway was too narrow. that was not on the plan. but it raises the question, what were they paying attention to when they issue the permits? why didn't they say, this complies, but you have a problem with access because there is a step, because the doorway is too narrow. that is what is disturbing. if you just look at a piece of paper and exclude everything

else, is a case of tunnel vision. why is that happening? you have also heard your concern -- computer systems can track bounced checks. i would suggest having some research. what districts, what inspectors seem to be having a lot of their permits to businesses sued? i think there is an oversight going on that maybe should show the need for better training over all. it also raises the question of the city staff who issues permits, they are oblivious. they need to look carefully to what extent the city is responsible. maybe not legally but morally and functionally. maybe they should have told the architect or contractor, you forgot to do something about this step, about the doorway being too narrow.

the cities has a responsibility to educate them. the disabled are the ultimate victim. they are paying the price for everything that everybody previously did not do. commissioner murphy: thank you. i will take your request to the president of small business. we may be able to accommodate you. further public comment? three minutes. >> san francisco coalition for responsible growth with all due respect to the prior speaker, let me responremind the commisss that any permit application will trigger some kind of handicap work. you may be making some modifications to a kitchen, it

may be a specific item with a price linked to it. then you will have to implement 20% of that cost. it is important to recognize any permanent conversion will involve some sort of handicap compliance. we spent quite a bit of time last year in regards to the legislation. any type of commercial building that will be subject to a further complicating that effort. if we make a tremendous effort, which seems to be the trend,

there are quite a few commercial spaces that would be subjected not only to seismic efforts, adding seawalls and the like, but handicapped work as well. [inaudible] you cannot force someone to expend an extraordinary amount of moneyp[m0 to be in full compliance. i would urge the department to look at our chip requests when it comes to providing these things. commissioner murphy: thank you. next speaker please. ,kbá>> good morning, commission. just to follow up on the

previous speaker, there is a ceiling. $130,000 or something like that. just keep that in mind. you do have to do 100%. also, there are a lot of equivalencies that you can use. it is not just a simple matter of 20% always. we are using this 20%, as well as other jurisdictions, which comes from the building code, but ada does not always look at that. i think you will hear more about this in your next joint meeting. commissioner murphy: thank you. next speaker. seeing none. >> item six was removed,

discussion regarding 565 marina blvd. however, we are taking public comment on this item. commissioner murphy: any public comment? seeing none. >> item 7. brief presentation regarding dbi's present day permit tracking system. >> director day, president murphy, commissioners, good morning. happy chinese new year to you

today. i am the chair manager for the planning division. i am glad the commission is taking interest into our permit tracking system. i want to go through our tracking system as the commission is ready to develop a new system for our department. this is a good opportunity for me to show the commission what we have and how it can help our daily operations. i have some reports of i want to show the commission. my topic

today is the building tracking system. first, i want to talk about what we are having now. i will go into the permit tracking system and the management reports, and summary and conclusion of my presentation. what we have now, we have a lot of module systems. each module has their own program. we have models for the building divisions, and electrical, plumbing divisions. we also have a permit service

program. [inaudible] we have an intake program. that is specifically for our programs lead. for the intake program we have various tracking programs. i will be concentrating on just the building permit tracking system, which is in red. anyone who applies for permits, they have to reveal the team taking the permit. a permit number will be created

in the screen there. also, in this particular screen, if you see that, that is one of the thing that we put in there. if you populate this area, you can see that this permit is a landslide program. we are also taking steps to check out complaints. what complaints have come to this department? the reason we have to check out complaints is to make sure that all the complaints against this building permits will be addressed. maybe we can address any new permits. if there is any complaint in the permit about if a particular project -- of a particular

project, he there they need to be resolved by the building or housing inspector before we can issue the permit. when you file for a permit, it is important for us to capture your scope of work and the characteristics of your project. in this particular case, we have 21 new projects. these are pretty comprehensive projects. this is the project stream that we can capture, all the data from the particular parties. right now, i want to go into how we plan with our planning

it is an important process. right now, we have to know where your project is going. with these particular projects, we have a lot of phases. we have the intake, permit process, city planning, and also buildings. we track each permit through the review stages. for a manager, we know exactly what permits are coming in, how you are approved. so this is a fairly important tracking system that we use every day to track permits. in our system, we are also looking at how many projects. some people wonder why it takes

so long to get permitting. our permit system also tracks the number of people coming in. it is kept in our records. the most important thing also is, the fee for the permits, our building code requirements are set by the comptroller, which is set up with department input. what you see here is very important for this project. it is a huge amount of money for this project. for area projects, those that are approved, we are also attracting that by what kinds of

special inspections are required. special items are the ones that are in addition to our municipal inspector requirements. these are the requirements where they have to hire a special inspector to give cer permit, sa very important screen, where we are tracking the items related to the project. our program also can provide a lot of management -- reports for the managers. in this case, our program produces reports t