how many permits are filed during that time period and also how many permits are issued during that time and what kind of revenue we collected. then, we can also print out in detail about the permit and what kind of conditions they have for each of the permits. we can also track each of the issue permits in detail. this is the most important tools that our manager can use to make sure the applications align to our businesses, but then, those permits, we want to make sure

the permit is being reviewed in time, so we have the capacity to check every permit. also, we can track how many permits are approved by the individual paying chapters, and also, we can do in our performance and appraisal so we can talk intelligently with our staff. we also require staff to employ into their daily activities. it is very important for us to capture what kind of activities they perform on a daily basis, like the time they spend. they have to employ it into our computer system, and we are tracking the production of our

staff accurately by using these methods. also, we can reveal how much time we spent on a permit, whether it is a mechanical or structural plane check hours, so we can get those accurately for each of the permits. also, we can check when we are putting a permit on hold, sometimes, we would like to see how many permits are being put on hold so they can ask the applicants what happened to their permit. maybe that sends a message out that the permit is on hold. this screen is very helpful for customer-related requirements. also, on item 10, we can create

a query as to how many permits, what type of permits, how many we issue within a certain time, and i or quarterly report, that really is helpful in our report for our executive teams. lastly, i wanted to go through a little bit. it comes into our division, and the trucking, when we assign it to staff, and also which objective. this is the tool we use every day to make sure the permit is not overly delayed.

right now, our criteria is we need to get the permit review within two weeks into our divisions. so far, we have not been able to do that. as i said before, the tracking system really can tell us how many permits that we issue, what type of permit that we issue in the particular time frames. if you see that during that time, it would be one month, we issued about 1700 permits, so it is a big number when we perform our permit review. this system is good for every type of from it. small permit, large permit -- we

track than the same way. also, our computer also can generate the planned review comment, and also, the project sponsor information, so we saw in our systems. right now, i would like to get a little summary about money -- my discovery of our permit system. our current system is still capable of serving the operational needs. at this point, our system is well-used by our staff. all our staff is very familiar how to do the computer tracking and how they use the computer, so this is -- at this time, we are capable to do our daily functions.

still, we recommend we improve on the current tracking system. one is to improve the system to provide user friendly acrylate -- operations. right now, sometimes, we have to close a script, and they go to another screen, so it is not very smooth in our operations. i recommend to expand the linkage. right now, we have various modules for each of the divisions. i think we can create more linkage within our departments. we feel that our linkage to the various departments -- we need to improve on that. the city planning and building department have some linkage, how we use our record, but somehow in the justice office or

made to the audit department, happily, they do not have our system, so we need to have better linkage on our audit departments. to my surprise, when i come in, we have not had a uniform operation manual for our computer, so i feel we should develop a uniform computer operation manual so ever department has the same manuals to depend on, and any time in our system, we put that thing into our manual, so the whole city can have a more uniform manual. the last one -- the last but not least is we should provide better public accessibility and improve transparency. i think we can improve the

website and also permit the public to use our permit tracking system. so this is kind of like the end of my slide. i hope this will help the commission when they inspect the new generation of tracking systems, and give you a little insight into what we have right now. i would like to provide an answer that our commission -- commissioner murphy: thank you. very good presentation. commissioner hechanova had his hand up first. the reason i put this on the agenda was more or less to educate our newer commissioners

that cannot possibly understand the workings of dbi. i just wanted to do that. i hope you were enlightened by this presentation. commissioner hechanova. commissioner hechanova: thank you very much for a very precise and comprehensive introduction, but more importantly, a snapshot into what the department does, and from my score with you and other members of the staff, it has been a category that we provide service in the city to really ensure that level of safety and welfare of the general public. how long has this system been in design? because we are now in the process of having sent out an rfp. were you involved with that design for the system from its onset? >> are you talking about this

current system for the new system? >> the new system. >> i have not spent a lot of time on the new system yet. maybe in the future, i'd like to produce a bit on that. >> but were you involved prior to development of the system to where it currently is being used as the basis for this rfp? >> yes, this system, in the old times, before 2000, we had what we call the motorola. in the year 2000, our system did not work. i was involved in the initial development of the current system at that time, the year 2000. so gradually, over the years, we improved it until in 2007, when we talk about a complete new

system, i have not been involved since 2007 in that. >> deputy director of administration. we are now forming the evaluation committee for the rfpp system, a tracking system, and anybody who works on it cannot be part of the evaluation committee. commissioner murphy: we will give you a chance to speak in a minute. let him finish first. yes. >> there seems to lease the five categories of improvement that you made on the recommendation at the end of your presentation. >> yes. commissioner hechanova: should this be incorporated into the system that is currently being proposed?

>> i can answer that. his suggestions have already been included in the previous rfp and the new one. the reason we cannot do it with the current system is the current system is not capable of doing this. that is why we have to get a new system. we have to get a system that is compatible to other city departments that can be a citywide system. our system is the in-house system. planning department, even though it is right next door, cannot enter into our system unless they are in our building. it is kind of a weird system. it cannot be network. it is in-house. it is a departmental, cloned, home grown system. to do this, we would have to do vpn's forever city department at a cost to the city department which would be more than the new system would cost, to let the

other city departments have access to our servers. commissioner murphy: it seems to me that what commissioner hechanova is asking, the gentleman who gave the presentation, who was involved in the origin of the old system, why he is not involved in the new system today. that is what he is asking. >> we would like to answer the question if we get a chance. the problem is an evaluation cannot be in on designing the rfp. that is a city mandate from the city attorney's office. the person that writes the rfp cannot evaluate the system. we need users to evaluate the systems that we are proposing to bring into the city. that is what we had to make a decision on, who was going to be an evaluator and who was going to write the rfp. commissioner murphy: thank you. commissioner walker. >> -- commissioner walker: thank

you for this. actually speaks to the process that we have been involved with. even as we went into this process of realizing we needed a new system, we did not have a presentation to actually talk about what was happening right now. i think that you have done an amazing -- and we have done an amazing job of sort of piecing together what we could to hobble along with this system, and i will -- i have been on this commission since the earlier part of this decade, at which time, we were also involved in this process, realizing that the time would come when the current system would cease to be able to accommodate these issues and these amendments and the changes we wanted to make. really important is this ability for all of our departments to work together. that is crucial. i will also went out that those

departments are also paying for their for dissipation, so they are helping us financially create this new system. i know that the process over the past nine years that i have been involved with has included a lot of the stakeholders, including the public, including our department, both the inspections -- everybody using it, and i think that the issue that you brought up about not everybody who -- should be involved is. the process we have of issuing rfp's and then evaluating or choosing a vendor is set forth by the human rights commission and the controller's office and the board. i think that the relevant process now is that the rfp is out and is being evaluated by folks who may want to respond.

it is good to know that we have adequate staff to make a choice about how we move forward. thank you for the presentation, and your continuing work, i'm sure, to make sure that we get what we need. commissioner mar: also, before the presentation. i was wondering if there is also a way of tracking how many contractors for homeowners will get in line. we talked about the line problem and people waiting to talk to a live person when in fact they could have gone online to check something, you know? because they did not know how to do it or they did not know it was available online. instead, they came down, in line to try to find out something that maybe they could have done from their own office, or even if we had public monitors, where they could get on line to find out something.

if that would be a way of -- >> [inaudible] >> yes, making it a little bit easier. i know a lot of contractors or homeowners are not computer literate. therefore, they spend a lot of time trying to interface with a live person when they could have just done it from their office or something else. >> right, we do have the computer online availability in the public information area, and we do have people there that can help people. that did go to the information counter. somehow they get up to the fifth floor, which is the processing floor, and wait in line to ask a question when they need to be at the first floor. we are trying to address that with more staff being able to direct people. that is the large problem in the department. commissioner murphy: i agree with you on that.

there is a lot of older people around that do not use computers, and a lot of homeowners that come down to the dbi to get a permit, and they get frustrated with the difficulty of getting a permit. what i see that worries me quite a bit if they just get frustrated, and they go off to do their jobs and they do them without a permit. there is a whole underlying economy dead that we could be tapping into if we had made the process a little easier and simple, and, quite frankly, it has got difficult. it has got more difficult. instead of one piece of paper, you need by pieces of paper today. i think if i was the guy coming looking for it, i would be frustrated, too. commissioner mar: the reason i

raise the point was that we need education on how to use the services. homeowners are a little different. so many people get in line when they just do not have to, and we should point out that there is a lot easier way to do this. >> to the point of people being frustrated, i want to point out that more projects are receiving over the counter permits. one of the things i'm hopeful of in this new system is for when someone comes in, they will be able to know how long it is going to take. i think that would go a long way towards, you know, making our system less frustrating.

if somebody knows what to expect, they should set their expectations that appear hopefully, as we go through the process of keeping a vendor, as they go through the recommended changes that i think all of us agreed to -- we have been working on this for so long, that can be one of the goals, to be able to look at somebody when they walk in for a permit and say, "it is going to take you two hours. it is going to take you two weeks. it is going to take you -- you know." then we have something to be accountable to. we draw a line, and management can say, "we told them this, and this is what happened," and figure out why. so thank you for your work on this. commissioner murphy: thank you. as a commission, we are here to make concessions. we are not here to give anyone a hard time.

it is going to be a ripple effect. why are we doing this? there is going to be -- i hope whoever takes over as the next president will continue putting a lot of stuff on the agenda that we need to get out there, that we need to talk about, and turned his department into the 70's 480's, rather than the 50's. commissioner hechanova. commissioner hechanova: the department really is service- based, and that is where we generate as an enterprise departments where our customer needs are -- are met immediately, efficiently, and in a way that is friendly. because we will have not only returning customers, but also

for people who were not there to bring in and security permits, something that they want to do something about in an irresponsible way of the buildings they either want to improve, and hearing from what the ada issues are is a lot of old buildings, and a lot of old buildings are the major reason is because the compliance issues on new buildings are really being addressed immediately before it is being built. in light of that, larger tool that we will hopefully have in place will be the new bps tracking system, which basically becomes a bigger searchlight for all of us to see at the life of the end of this tunnel. over a year ago, they were both on the industry side and also residents and citizens in san francisco came up and spoke

about how this system is great. they are willing to pay extra money if they knew that they were getting more service and faster service, and i think that we are getting there, and, hopefully, that the generation of proposals will really address the key and critical issues that were brought in this presentation about being more efficient, delivering the service, and as the service being delivered will get more income more immediately into the department. commissioner murphy: thank you, commissioner. further comments? seeing none, public comments, please. three minutes. >> good morning, commissioners. luke o'brien. i'm glad to see this back open again, and to let everybody know, this is on the agenda at

our department as well. i send out an announcement to parties that i feel are interested in this, and the other topics, and i specifically said that the objective of this combined hearing -- discovery, understanding, and comprehension of existing systems in the city, whether it is the environmental review or permit tracking or whatever, and the hope is to start to think long term and problem-solving. the mattress shifts a little bit too, "what the hell do we have to do to fix whatever it is we need to do?" let's think about begging for forgiveness rather than worrying about getting permission. let's get results. i understand the director has to police the ship at all times,

has to be careful they did not leave themselves open for a lawsuit from another department, agency, or whatever, and we will never be able to argue against that. the previous director had during the meetings that they started with the people sort of form committees that could weigh in on some of this stuff and might have been able to be involved in it. it is hard for me because i understand the legal. it would not be impossible for me to build, and i know you have to rely on what people are telling you is the case on what is practical and not practical. that is not a big deal. this system is actually very good. if this man architect of that system, i give him 100 out of 100. it is extremely comprehensive. it is all the bells and whistles you need in order to get a

picture right now. you could turn to a guy and say you need a report on it now, and they would ask how many weeks we are behind on this particular that love. he has got it all there, so i hope there's not a lot of energy and money wasted on reinventing this system and the new system, and whether it gets incorporated or not, it could be modularized into the new system, and it will work just fine. that is how they can be done when you know how this thing works. the guys that are going to come in should be told, "we want you to build this system on the new system," so i would love to see a bit more openness, and i would love to be on the evaluation committee, and talk to the human rights commission to see if we can make it a little bit better rather than wait for the public to receive after they have received it. just a suggestion. thank you. commissioner murphy: thank you. next speaker please. >> thank you, commissioners.

mis is something of an oxymoron, and i wish you luck with your new system. i agree that services is the center of the new building department, and that is what citizens need, and that is what you can and should provide. i want to make a few comments. i was told that item 5 would probably not come up until well after 11:00, and i would like to comment on the services that involve accessibility in particular. as you know, there is a new $1 million fund that has been created privately by the opportunity fund, which the city now has access to. i think it would be great if you put posters about that on the second, third, and fourth floor for small business people do not make a figure out how to ask you about something they do not know about. if you would put up posters, it would make it easy to know, and i think it would be terrific year also, notices are being

sent out to small business licensees, as you know, who are restaurant to is. another week or two by the treasurer. i wish this commission would send out notices telling people of their accessibility responsibilities and offering assistance. not enforcement notices. they are facilitation notices to the other small businesses. a single case costs so much more than $12,000 that somebody should just give you the $12,000 to do that. i would hope that you would have 3-but discussions between the disability community organizations, small business organizations, and yourselves on how that small business problem of accessibility can be streamlined. streamlining does not mean just taking steps out and not requiring enforcement. it actually means doing the enforcement, but more easily, more quickly, with more information out in advance. we are constantly catching up.

one thing you might do is have an accessibility person. not like the "new york times" person who hears the case after something has happened, but someone who helps facilitate in advance. your director at the news conference that we are not just here to punish you. and in force things. we are also here to help. i do not know whom to believe, but if you had a prison his title was "facilitator" or had some operation that really did that seriously, i think that would help. you also can offer expertise. you have expertise on your staff, and doing teaching for the small business groups, for the neighborhood groups, for others, putting together flyers and education materials -- that would all be terrific. unreasonable charges go to the commissioners, and we are happy to get them. we have had very few cases from small businesses, recently. they have all been from very large buildings. i'm sorry i was not here to view the ot