it is difficult to do without doing things we would consider a violation of privacy. it is a challenge. the population we're dealing with often has complicated issues. we provide the same sets of resources from adult protective services to mental health services. the city has been supported. the legislature has been supported by providing for nonprofits to help tenants manage. i am going to stop there and take questions. supervisor kim: i do have a couple of questions. i was trying to write down what you are saying. how many notices of violation total did dph issue against

property owners for any violation? >> i want to separate the complete data. a complete data from the violations. supervisor kim: i want to know what percentage of complaints and violations are for bed bugs. >> 532 in apartments. supervisor kim: do you know what percentage that is in your total number of violations? >> in terms of the complaints we respond to, that would be roughly about 10% in the apartments and housing. do you want to estimate for the hotels what percent of bed bugs?

in the shelters, we're estimating 50% to 60%. supervisor kim: this is a problem that comes up frequently as one of the most reported complaints that the ph --dph gets. >> many people are hearing about bed bugs. they are having a problem. they do not know what it is. they call us because they might have bed bugs. we're going in and doing a thorough inspection and finding there are none. that is one of the reasons these complaints are being abated. there is a public perception of bed bugs driving the complaints. the actual violations are much less than the complaints. i do not have those numbers with me. supervisor kim: do you have the number of all violations that

are bed bugs? >> i do not have that. supervisor kim: how many environmental health inspectors are assigned to bedbug code enforcement? >> we do not assign inspectors to a particular pest. we assigned inspectors to two different programmatic areas. we have two inspectors handling roughly 500 sro's. they are investigating complaints and doing some room by room inspections. these have been designated as family sro's or where the city has the master lease function.

for the apartment inspection program, we have 10 inspectors distributive citywide. supervisor kim: 10 for apartments and two for hotels and shelters. you say that is roughly 530 hotels and shelters? but there are roughly about 500 sro hotels. with tourist hotels, is 800 total. supervisor kim: these two inspectors are responsible for 800 hotels? >> that is correct. we're managing by the complete response to complete response -- we are managing by the complaint response.

at the service level we are providing, it is adequate. i mentioned we're doing the pro- active inspections in only a subset of the tesoro -- of the sro's were the city has the master lease responsibility or where we have assigned families. i think we would be welcoming of being able to do a preventative function. it would need additional resources. we are funded by license fees from the property owners. supervisor kim: in 2008, we passed the healthy housing ordinance.

it pays for nine full-time staff members. the city hotel and apartment owners paid $1.5 million so that we can have routine complaint inspections. do any of the 9.5 inspectors' work on the proactive inspections? >> in terms of bed bugs, they are working on be proactive inspections on the limited set. supervisor kim: how much do they do every year in terms of pro- active inspections? >> for the sro's designated for master lease and family, we inspected every room, every year. supervisor kim: that is a small percentage of the 20,000 sro

units in san francisco. >> i think we inspect roughly -- you can come up to respond to this. supervisor kim: i think a number of questions i will need to both appear. we have roughly 20,000 residential units in our sro's. what percentage do we do pro- active inspections for? >> i cannot tell you numbers in terms of inventory units. i can tell you in terms of the sro's. we're typically doing room to room inspections in 170. that is out of 500 plus sro's in the city. the tourist hotels represent a different category.

the demand for that and proactive inspections is less. we would not necessarily recommend the room by room inspections in the tourist hotels. it would be an advantage to do that. i know that dbi does also do these inspections. this is a specialty area of the identification of factors as a special area of training. supervisor kim: do you work with dbi? are you coordinating this with dbi? do you ever do joint inspections together for buildings with the most complaints or violations? do you make sure they handle a different set of buildings other than the hundred and 70 you may

inspect that year? >> it is not a usual day-to-day practice to coordinate the inspections. record made them in code enforcement cases. -- we coordinate them in code enforcement cases. we will set up a code enforcement investigation were multiple agencies are doing the investigation at the same time. those are a case by case. supervisor kim: what is the process for certifying inspectors for bedbug abatement? >> there is no particular certification for bed bugs. they are one kind of pest. there is a state director control branch within the health department. de- require continuing education units for -- they require continuing education units. bedbugs are included.

all of my inspectors in both programs maintain that certification. supervisor kim: do you believe that the dph directors rules and regulations are adequate? >> when we issued the regulations in 2006, we were the first city in the country to do so. i think they are adequate to deal with the response of component of the problem but not necessarily prevention. we can do some of the things for more proactive inspections. even if a room is inspected and found clear before a tenant occupies it, a tenant can bring in bed bugs.

that makes it a difficult situation. supervisor kim: i understand that. would it be helpful to mandate a type of treatment or to mandate that complaints get resolved within a certain number of days? would it help if we were to change that? >> one of the things that changed with the december amendment to the nooses -- nuisance code is that our staff have guidelines for what is required and in what time period. we do have a standard amount of time for which the bedbug complaints must be resolved. those are regulations. they are not city law, but there are regulations. we can amend those as needed. supervisor kim: would it be helpful to amend city law to

mandate a type of treatment or number of days? >> i think it would have potential pros and cons. if one treatment is much more expensive than another, it may discourage treatment and recording -- reporting. it may cause other problems. we have never mandated for private property is a particular type of pest control treatment. we would have to think about that issue very carefully. supervisor kim: i know certain treatments are more effective than others. they are probably more expensive. are there different standards set for the different types of treatment? either industry or from your perspective -- that certain

types are best treated by heat or pesticides. >> if there are no accepted best practices or standard practices for this. this is an emerging area. there's going to be a lot of new technology. there is no dog sniffing -- now dog sniffing technology. this is an emerging area. there are state rules that tie your hands. our city and others in california would be loath to develop guidelines that were explicit about pesticide control. supervisor kim: is there any kind of licensing required for pest control operators, who provide abatement for bed of control services?

>> all of the operators are licensed under state law. the types of treatment -- certain types of treatment require a particular type of permit, the most toxic types of treatment. these do not require a use by used treatment. supervisor kim: so nothing specific around bedbugs. among operators, is that consistent in their ability to successfully abate bedbug issues, here in the city? >> i do not think so. again, these are -- regulation of the pest control industry, monitoring of the effectiveness of the pest control industry -- we have not been collecting data. i suppose we could look at the data from the test operator to see if the tests were chronic, or if there were any patterns,

that is something that we could study. since we are asking for treatment records for those operators. supervisor kim: that would be great. they could help buttress the number that we get. landlord probably go straight to the operators, not the city. do you help provide guidance to owners and managers on where they can find quality and effective services? are there companies that are known to do good quality work, that you refer them to? >> we tried to provide guidance based on what treatment should look like. again, it has not been our practice -- and some may consider it inappropriate for the city to recommend one business over another. we are trying to promote exactly what they should expect from the

operator. when we get a notice of a violation, we are explicit about what that pest control operators should do. three treatments of these kinds, this many days apart. they need to put monitors, in certain cases to see if the adjoining room has been invested. we are explicit in what we want to see from the best control operator. supervisor kim: i know that we do not necessarily detail minimum of guidelines for when to issue a violation for bedbugs. rose mary mentioned you do not need to see the bad bugs, but just the blood on the seheet -- that is enough to issue a violation. what are the minimum guidelines for issuing a violation? >> pursuant to the changes in

the health code, we will be clarifying that for the entire community. what is the physical evidence ultimately that judges -- that leads to a notice of violation? in our practice, any of these findings will lead to a notice. isupervisor kim: so we have a detailed list of the physical evidence. >> we have a list in the day-to- day practice of stopping there will be translated into a public document for people. another specific thing -- supervisor kim: the physical evidence listed in order to issue a violation? >> some of the physical evidence includes blood stains

on the mattress. feces, the exoskeleton of the dead bedbugs. you can actually see, at times, live bedbugs. sometimes, you see other stages, what we call nymphs. it is not one single item that prompts us for a notice. it is a combination of those things i mentioned. supervisor kim: i would love to get that list. thank you. >> just to add to that, where there is ambiguity, we will leave a sticky trap in the room and come back to look for evidence. that is a pretty standard industry practice. supervisor kim: could i ask a

few follow up questions to ms. bosk, too. thank you, colleagues, for this time. i want to ask members of the task force that has been the convening to summarize some of their findings, their research. you had talked about a reasonable accommodation requests. for many of our seniors and disabled individuals who are not able to repair their room for inspection, what does that mean, what does preparation mean? >> we will frequently find in situations with seniors, people with mobility problems, that they may not be in an appropriate situation to prep the room, or as materials, move

things away from the wall so that treatment can occur. in those situations, we will deal with several agencies. adult protective services, legal services for the elderly. we will work with our code enforcement outreach program, the sro collaborative, so they can contact individuals to help them prep the room. we really try to be sensitive to the issues because we realize if the room is not prepped properly for the best control operator, we are not going to get the results intended for desired. supervisor kim: what does prepping a room mean? >> essentially, moving things away from the wall, boxing materials, assisting with the treatment of the personal items so that they do not re-in fact the room. these are things we talk about when we refer to prepping the

room. supervisor kim: how many accommodation requests do you get? >> people do not always use the term reasonable accommodation. we may see that they might need the assistance, so we will contact various agencies. i do not have specific numbers. on the basis of the notices of violation that i put up there, we will see some issues with prepping the room 55% to 70% of the time. with respect to that, we are usually contacting agencies, or we are already present because we are working with the collaborative or community group, and that was the basis of the complaint brought to us. supervisor kim: i know a large number of our sro residents are seniors or disabled individuals. i imagine this is one of the pressing issues, regarding our sro's. >> absolutely, and i commend you

for honing in on this issue. we are also addressing according and cluttering issues, which are giving us ancillary problems. that is why we will work with the legal services for the elderly, so they can articulate properly the reasonable accommodation request, and work with the property owner and pest control operators, to make sure those needs are met. supervisor kim: what kind of training does your inspectors received on hoarding, covering issues? >> every year, we come back from staff meetings. i recently had a staffer who attended those training sessions, who specializes in hoarding and cluttering matters. since he left, i'm in training somebody new in that. supervisor kim: do you think that we effectively utilize dph

and dbi resources in order to combat the bed bug problem? also, if you have any suggestions for improvement in collaboration between the two departments. >> as i previously stated, we work with health department, but there is always room for improvement. one of the things that the operators and tenants are looking to the city on it is getting more information and a better understanding of the combination of tool that will be more effective. as you are aware, there had been, nationally -- the chicago summit occurred this time last year because of the infestations in new york, other major cities on the east coast. there was a recent training that i helped staff.

many of the community members were there as well, trying to learn the new signs with respect to new treatments. i mentioned heat. recently, at a conference, and an elderly woman in a wheelchair come up to me and she was concerned about the use of pesticides. perhaps some of these other tools can be used. there may be pros and cons in terms of the heat, in terms of cost, but the jurisdiction definitely needs to look at this and talk to industry professionals, so that there are more opportunities out there for the owners and operators to be able to react in a timely fashion and also to look at the material -- movement of materials in the building. the city attorney and i had a discussion recently with a city operator about setting up a heat

room. this was a for-profit hotel, and it seems to be working. their incentive is they are spending a tremendous amount of money on the total rehab of the building. i will not mention it by name, but this is something we want to encourage other hotels to do. when management clears a room and are moving people to another location, they need to be able to address the movement of personal items from one location to another. the other thing that should happen immediately in both coasts is -- i am not sure in the health code -- but in the housing code, it is not required that mattresses are free from infestation have in case the covers. we are starting to put that in our notice of violation. that one is a no-brainer, something that we all should do. supervisor kim: thank you.

i wanted to ask members of the task force to do a brief presentation on some of their findings. how much to ask jeff buckley, brad bishop, and richard made to come up. thank you. >> supervisors, my name is jeff buckley, the director organizing with the tenderloin housing clinic. i will allow the members of the public to comment on a lot of the things that have been put forth by the department of public health, but i would like to say, without a doubt, we do not feel that two inspectors for five under 30 sro units could even remotely be called an adequate response to the level of bedbug infestations. there are other issues that i will address, but i wanted to summarize and describe what the working group is. once we learned there would be a

public hearing on this issue, we convened a working group, which was really an informal group of people who have either experienced, a treat, work with, or collaborate with, from the property manager perspective, made its workers, pest control operators, tenant advocates, involve would bedbug issues intimately. the idea is, we want to cut through a lot of the russian valley that comes with this issue. i have seen, of talking about the bugs, that people almost instinctively start to scratch. this issue inspire something within people. it also takes a lot out of people who go through the process. you talk to someone who has not been through it compare to those who have. it has really had a major impact on their lives that many will talk about. we went through the existing

rules and regulations and look at how both departments enforced existing codes and made recommendations. here are those recommendations. the first is, we need to improve the director's rules and regulations on how to control bedbug infestations. this has not been opened up for review since its inception. that needs to change immediately. we are concerned the department of public health is not interested in doing this. if they are, that they would try to control process and not allow us to implement the kind of changes that we feel are adequate. second, they need to legislate specific administrative penalties for property owners who fail to comply with the department of public health's code requirement for bedbug abatement. if you look, generally, dph gives notices of violation to the tenant as well as property owner. dbi only gives notices of violation to the property owner.

we feel there process is far more effective in debating the issue. ultimately, when you are addressing these issues, it is very difficult in a court of law to prove that a tenant has been able to infect their own units. ultimately, it is the habits of the bed bug and they're wondering ability that makes it difficult to say that the tenant brought it in. if you are charging nuisance, it is difficult to charge that to the tenant. that is why we feel existing practices need to be amended. i would also say we need to require code enforcement services, to respond to bed of cases and complaints in all housing types, including multi apartment units and sro hotels, as outlined in the ordinance and fee schedules. we need to require dbi housing inspection oti