>> good morning. i am john avalos.. the clerk of the committee is dealing johnson -- gail johnson.

>> please turn off cell phone and pagers. if you wish to submit material, please submit a copy for the file. if you wish to submit a speaker car, please put them in the containers in the item to your left. the items today will go up for consideration next tuesday unless and of the date is indicated. item number one is a resolution authorizing emergency management to spend $800,000 in the california emergency management agency for improvements to the city's emergency operations center. >> i am with the san francisco department of emergency management. i am joined by a project manager. this is an $800,000 grant from

the department homeland security to provide critical infrastructure upgrades. this building also does the city's 9/11 despite. this will allow us to keep the power and whites on -- the power and light's on for functions whenever there is a disaster. there are two specific projects. one is to provide a redundant power supply. it is an action way of keeping the lights on when there is a disruption in the city. the other thing we're going to do is of grave our emergency satellite communications. we can communicate with the operation centers. we have 20 or around the city. that is the way we talk to police and public health at the department level during an emergency. we want to make sure our

satellite communications are up. there are no new positions created with the grant. is all for equipment and planning. there is a local match of about $250,000 over three years. we've had requested in the budget summit to to you. we have spread it over three years. it is a pretty small amount. that is a quick summary. i am happy to answer questions. supervisor avalos: what is the current backup power system in case of a disaster? >> it is to make sure that the ups that is the weakest link has redundancy. we are putting a second one in case the other one fails. correct. we're going to be re-redundant.

no public comment. we will move forward without objection to the full board. madam clerk, please call the next item. >> to consider presentations from the department of health and department of building inspection regarding ongoing procedures, reporting, and federal procedures, enforcement, and prevention of bed bugs. supervisor avalos: i think the sponsor is just now coming in the room. is that microphone going to be

on? supervisor kim, welcome. supervisor kim: 84 agreeing to the agendize this hearing. let me pull up my notes. i want to welcome the public for coming to the meeting. bed bugs are a real issue across san francisco with infestations occurring everywhere from low income housing too expensive hotels. the exact number of outbreaks are uncertain because dps does not automatically track infestations by the type of bugs involved. it is mainly dealt with by the private sector currently.

i want to acknowledge the hard work of our advocates on this issue. deborah walker has called for a hearing this month on the topic. i look forward to working with the community group and others on the issue. since we called the hearing in january, a group of advocates and others have been meeting weekly to talk about the data we have found. they are researching and interviewing tenants, putting together questions, and recommendations for potential legislation in the future. we are hoping to address enforcement of prevention and treatment, particularly for the low income, sr., and

monolingual residents. the office receives many questions about how enforcement can be improved. what we're hoping to get out of the hearing is an overview of current statistics on infestations and what treatment methods are demonstrating promising results. some findings of the other hearing and an explanation of how agencies are working together to address enforcement. we also want to improve guidelines around what constitutes an infestation. that is a little about what we hope to get out of the meeting today. thank you to the department and the public for being here. supervisor avalos: department

heads, do we have a presentation from dph? >> good morning. i am with the health department. someone else was supposed to make the presentation. he thought the meeting was scuttled for 2:00. he should be here shortly. dph can go ahead and make their presentation prior to his arrival. thank you. >> good morning. i am the chief housing inspector of the housing inspection services division of the department of building

inspection. bed bugs -- i have to tell you that in the 26 years i have been dealing with enforcement in san francisco that i have never seen a life and safety hazard that impacts occupants of residential buildings as much as i have seen with respect to bed bugs. i have had individuals that have suffered from infestations. there occupants particularly of residential hotels. they call me crying on the phone because the infestation has not been properly eradicated. let me move to the dbi role with respect to enforcement and eradication. the department of building inspection is a secondary agency. it is not the primary agency on bed bugs. the licensing and regulations

of pest control operators and the criteria for eradication and certification is completely regulated by the health department. the rules and regulation from dph's director. we have overlapping jurisdiction in the housing code. the san francisco housing code indicates state law with respect to the fact that infestations are a violation of the san francisco housing code state law. it creates a hazardous condition and is a public nuisance. we have overlapping jurisdiction. anytime a notice of violation is written under the san francisco code, the criteria for who the licensing division is that does the work and what work is necessary to eradicate the

infestation comes from the health department. we are joined with them systemically on this issue. what happens when a complete comes to the department of building inspection? because of policies, we do not address a complaint that comes in exclusively with respect to bed bugs. if the complaint comes in, it is referred to the department of public health based on the policy of our director. if a complaint comes in for multiple items associated with housing code violations, then we do address that. i want to show the committee members an overview of the department of building enforcement's projects.

of particular interest is the top item. the department of building inspector's can get a complaint or from systematic code enforcement we do. what is critical is when we go to do the inspection. we are looking for not necessarily live bugs to write the citation. for us to write a notice of violation, all we have to do see evidence of the infestation. it may be blood on the mattresses. it is not necessary to have quantum prove to write a notice of violation. items must be complied with within 30 days. if part of the notice of

violation is addressing bed bugs, the protocol within the department of public health directives is that if pesticides are used, they have to treat their rooms involved at least three times with a two week interval in between. if we write a notice of violation and a choose pesticides rather than that in combination with something else, it is a commitment for that long or longer. if we do not get compliance when the violation is issued, we will send the case to an administrative hearing. we're very vigorous with respect to that. the property owner will be assessed for cost. supervisors will probably remember at least once a year we are before you with respect to that. we charge the property owners for not complying, $170 per hour

for the inspector and a hundred and $4 per hour for administrative time. -- and $104 per hour for administrative time. if any of the items are not complied with, those cases are going to the minister during -- 2 administrative hearing and they will be billed. i want to give you an idea of of the things we're looking at. there are approximately 31 items that the bed bugs are one of. this list was done on the basis of the prevalence of complaints we get. bedbugs is right at the top. it is something we frequently have to address. we frequently encounter issues with individuals who may not have the capacity to prepare the rooms for treatment. we may have issues with people

who have capacity issues and cannot prepare their room. what do we do? we will get adult protective services involved, legal assistance to the elderly, or any other group to assist the code enforcement process will not cause displacement. we constantly work with those agencies to make sure that the individual is not displaced. with regard to asking for reasonable accommodations, people cannot always use those magic words but may need some sort of accommodation. we will refer those individuals to those agencies so they can assist with the preparation of the room. 90% of the treatment is prepping the room properly. one thing we have heard in the department of building inspection -- i was just a

mental health conference. i had an individual indicate that the pesticides in hz single room occupancy hotel were too severe for her. she could not get information from the licensed pest control operators regarding what materials were being used. she wanted other materials to be considered. the san francisco task force formed by this board meets regularly on a monthly basis. i was recently elected as the new chair to that. one of the items that came up recently in our discussion with the health department is the fact that there may be another alternative that is useful in situations where people cannot tolerate pesticides.

one thing we suggested in that came out of the discussion with the task force is that the health the apartment could talk with the pest control agencies to see if the cost for that treatment can come down because of the volume of business they would have in san francisco. we have been told that the treatment for pesticides for the three-part application was approximately $50 per room. the heat treatment may be one time and $1,000. property owners have a choice. we're finding in the literature that the combination of tools may be necessary to assist with the revocation. the health department is taking the lead to see if those things

can be done. the health department is the lead agency. they deal with complaints that are expressed -- specifically for bed bugs. when we are doing inspections, we invite the health department to join us if they choose to do so. we have a litany of items we have to address within the building. we will share any information that we might have with them. that is what we do. as far s statistical information, the number of complaints that dbi gets is

growing over the years. you can also see the ones we referred to the health department because they were specifically bedbug complaints. supervisor avalos: do you have a breakdown of which neighborhoods call in the violations and where the infestations are? the mission article said about 3/4 of the sro's were interested. i am wondering if other areas have extremely high infestations. do you know? >> we did not break down this information by regions of the city. i will tell you anecdotally that the mission definitely has a high infestation. the tenderloin and other areas have high infestations. a lot of that has to do with the

operation of the hotels. in the cases we have referred to the city attorney, we have had discussions with operators to encourage them to be more sophisticated in dealing with the bed bugs and migration of personal effects throughout the building. we're not completely there yet. that is something the department of building inspection has been working on. the other thing i would like to show you has to do with the number of inspectors dedicated to this. for housing inspectors, anyone could be dealing with bed bugs. i have sectors based on geographic areas throughout the city. i have an inspector completely dedicated to doing room inspections within residential hotels. we do have the ability to assist with coverage. we are not allowed to address

the complaints that are exclusively bed bugs since the head of -- health department is the lead agency. i am happy to answer any questions. supervisor avalos: mr. batia? >> dr. batia from the department of health. my apologies for being late. the department's responsibility for control of bed bugs falls into four categories. prevention and education, enforcement, regulation of pesticide use, and the

operations of certain hotels. i think it is important to know that bed bugs can spread from place to place on people and their belongings. that makes it very hard to control. it is important to note that they are not vectors of human disease. they do not carry disease. they in fact a person. they create symptoms in a person, but they do not carry disease. it is important to know that no public agency in the city, state, or country collects surveillance information on bed bugs. we do not know what the prevalence of infestation is in the city, state, or country. the limited information we do

know is from day that we get on complaints the complaint data will reflect only a fraction of the true problem and burden of bed bugs in society. we do not collect surveillance data on bed bugs because they are not a factor of human disease. they are common. bed bugs are one of a type of test -- pest that makes a dwelling in habitable. others may include cockroaches and other bugs. tests -- pests in dwellings are illegal. there similarly illegal under the san francisco help code. they are common infestations.

the primary responsibility for dealing with these infestations is on the owner of the property. our first task is prevention. we have been working on prevention and education for about a decade now. the problem is becoming more apparent in cities like new york. there is a lot of media on this now. there have been periodic eds and flows in the media interest. we started responding to this vigorously about a decade ago. bedbugs were always included in the types of infestations prohibited under city law. in 2006, we issued regulations

that provided more clarity on what owners, pest control companies, and tenants must do. we have done the training with the pest control operators, apartment owners, sro operators. we had a citywide conference on the issue to share best practices. we continue to do this as people request it. we get requests frequently. we will go and do training as needed. the important thing we tried to communicate during these sessions are that -- the importance of robust and effective treatment. one treatment is not enough. a series needs to be done.

we need to identify areas where the bed bugs can hide. prevention also means controlling the movement of bed bugs from one dwelling unit 2 at an adjacent unit. we get involved in the process when there is a complete. a complete happens typically when a tenant or occupant has not gotten satisfaction or clarity from the operator. what does happen in most situations is that a tenant discovers they have a problem with an infestation. they go to the landlord. the landlord initiates' pest control treatment. the city is not the primary operator for private property.

we have role in enforcing the appropriate management of housing but we do not go in and do the work of monitoring or pest control. we make sure it is done as appropriate. we have a clear protocol for what we do and expect when we have a complete. the department of public health is identified as the city's vector control agency. staff are trained in the identification of many pests and infestations that happen in housing. staff can identify bed bugs even sometimes by smell. they will go in and investigate the killing -- the dwelling. if it is indeterminate, they may leave monitoring tracks will

give them to the property manager or tenant. if they discover bedbugs, the issue a notice of violation. they require treatment. they do not close the case until they get confirmation that the treatment has occurred. this treatment takes some time. at minimum, it is three treatments 10 days apart. it is unlikely we will see closure before 30 days. supervisor avalos: could you talk about the ordinance we passed last year. in bed bugs in the nuisance category in the effect that has had on enforcement? >> at the end of the year, we clarified the city health code on nuisances. we added bed bugs as a specific

category of pests prohibited as a nuisance under the ordinance. we had already been practicing the ordinance as if bedbugs were included, but we made this explicit. more importantly, we added a set of enforcement provisions that would create vigorous penalties for operators that noncompliant -- that were non compliant. we have not had to utilize the penalties but are prepared to use them. the data i am going to share is going to suggest that in the category of bed bugs, a lot is going on. things seem to happen the way they are supposed to happen. we do not anticipate having to use penalties and enforcement provisions frequently.