issues and approve the recommendations as put forward. commissioner lee: second. vice president mar: there's a motion on the floor that has been seconded. >> commissioner walker? >commissioner walker: yes. >> commissioner lee? commissioner lee: yes. >> commissioner murphy? commissioner murphy: no. >> four to one. thank you. item six. report on the progress for setting standards for gray water systems, including permit approval for dbi and coordination with the puc. >> good morning, commissioners,

vice president mar. chief plumbing inspector, san francisco. i've been asked to come and speak as part of rainwatgray wa. i have been working with the puc for the past two years now, incorporating a manual for homeowners, customers, contractors that want to start installing the re water systems. one of the things i have right now is a draft that explains how systems are to be installed. it with dbi and the plumbing department, we realized it is expensive to do the systems. one of the things in the manual is the type of plan check of the type of systems that are installed, due to the fact that we have properties that are one on top of another. planchette is one of the

important things to have done tree will save contractors, homeowners money and time before they obtained a permit or start to do any type of work, so they know they can do these systems. we're looking to make this as safe as possible. the water going from a gray water system, unfortunately to a neighbor's property to the top of ground you have or the type of layout you might have done. we like to know exactly what is coming forward and make it easier for the applicant, so they know exactly what they are getting into. we would be able to identify these types of projects, so we have been working with them, for like a said, over two years. i have been with gray water for four or five years now knowing that it is coming forward. one of the biggest concerns we have as well is the types of systems. where they are putting it, how

they are putting it. we want to be there for the health and safety of the people. we want to be the leading forces say that we are here to help you and make this as easy as possible. we are all behind it 100%. we just want to see if it can come forward and be easy. if you look at the handout you have now, it is basically telling you everything. little snippets of what is being done in the manual that we have been working on with the puc. it shows different systems, different requirements, what we are expecting at dbi, what puc is putting out there as well and how we're planning to help them. one of the biggest things that will help everybody would be plumbing plan check for especially these types of systems. it will make a lot easier for everyone and save everybody, like i said before, time and money. commissioner murphy: last time you brought it up, there were some issues with the device.

the washing machine pumping the gray water out. >> one thing that is actually in the code is the gray water for laundry to landscape. that was in the newspaper the other day of somebody will put one of those in. it shows how you take from the laundry as a single pipe. there's no cutting into the plumbing system, a changing of any piping. that is already installed. all that stays there. then you have the three-way valve, and that takes it directly to the landscape. that is not permanent. we do not see those. because it has no typing that is being cut into. no new installation of piping that would require it. those we do not see. anything else beyond that -- permits, inspections, engineers dams, gaea tech -- geotech -- it is required. commissioner murphy: it is still

voluntary. it is not mandatory. then i guess, it is voluntary. if you would like us to look at the systems you are installing, they can come down and get a permit, have thus look at it, or if they would like to come in and show us the plans they are planning to do before they do it and get our input of what it is a great system or whether it will work in the location, more than welcome. commissioner murphy: does it require an additional permit? >> if they are coming into the office and speaking to the plan checker, i am assuming -- i not know if there would be a fee associated with that. that is not there yet, so i cannot tell you, but if they wanted to have someone go out and inspect the installation of a contractor somebody hired, then, yes, they would have to get a permit. commissioner murphy: what is really driving this or bringing this on is the leaking of water into a neighbor's property or the downhill side? >> you are getting more of a concern from next-door neighbors

that are seeing gray water systems being installed to a neighbor's house that might be on a hillside, or even on flat ground, and they are getting watered intruding into their basement unit, their own unit into the carriage -- the garage, and they do not know where it is coming from. we send somebody out for a complaint, and we are looking at the sanitary systems, so we d oe leak could be coming from. if we do not know that they have a laundry to landscape and it is not saturated at the time we go out there, finding that type of leak knowing it is there is really difficult to do. i spoke with the health department in this regard, and they say they go out as well and do a sample test. problem is the sample test is going to show laundry detergent, dirty water, could show anything. that is kind of the same thing you would get out of a sanitary system. then knowing exactly where it is coming from as well gets a little complicated.

commissioner lee: how much would it cost -- what is the estimated cost for having a soil report? >> i do not know. i could not tell you. commissioner lee: we do not know how much the fees are just yet? not the soils reports, for a permit fee. >> for a basic kermit, it is going to be -- i want to say $165 for a basic premise. i will say bathroom to landscape project. it would be a $160 permit. commissioner lee: ok. do we have an estimate of what the installation costs maybe? >> that all depends on who is doing it. if you are hiring a plumber, doing it as a homeowner, it all depends on what you're using for materials, the type of landscape

you are doing, planning, everything else. >> the kit that the puc is providing for homeowners to install themselves, do we know how much those cost? >> again, i have no idea. that is something i just found out about a few days ago. i know that they are having a meeting for a workshop and in the workshop, they are going to show exactly what is going on. commissioner lee: what i am leading toward is i hate to see this new project get too costly for homeowners to take advantage of. right now, i anticipate soil reports could cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. >> there are certain things in here that may sit in the soil is not exactly what you have in that area. we can use that data, and it makes it easier and less expensive. also, that is one of the reasons

why we were talking about having a plumbing plan check for the systems to have someone talk to was first. i know certain areas throughout the city myself, telling as you can have it in these locations, because of the water tables, the high tables, and that type of thing. commissioner lee: ok, so there would be some areas where you would say, "this is what we know?" >> there is just no way to do those types of systems because that ground is already being saturated. you would not be able to take that gray water to the ground. it will not work. that is one of the reasons why coming to see us before you went to spend that kind of money might make it easier. did not need a soil report, they did not need to install those, and everything was fine. commissioner lee: if you put the burden on the home water to get the report, it could be a disincentive. >> that is where we're not

trying to go. we are trying to make it easier to come forward and show us what you have, where you are at, where you are located, the type of soil you have, and then we are able to assess where we are at and go from there. if we have no idea, then we will need some kind of report, especially if you're talking certain areas of san francisco that have smaller back yards, smaller lots that want to use certain types of systems. you are going to need more information. you are going to need more information in order to figure out exactly the type of space, the type of bird, the location, where they are sitting at, and everything else. commissioner lee: regarding the neighbors' concerns of having the gray water flowing into their yard, is there a process to keep the neighbors and former of the homeowners request to install something like this? -- to keep the neighbors informed? >> unfortunately, i do not

believe so. commissioner lee: maybe take that into consideration when you are discussing it. >> i think it came up a year- and-a-half ago. if there is a gray water system and we have a permit, we are able to look at it and have some fun of documentation so if a complaint or something arises, we can go back to that information and see that. without it, it is very hard. without the permit, you should not have those kinds of problems. hopefully, it is not a lot of water going in the backyards, but if it becomes an issue, finding out will be difficult on our in. with the permit systems, having that information, if a complaint does arise and it is in the back yard or away from home, we are able to go back and look and say that we have a laundry landscape, bathroom to landscape, a gray water system going into this back yard. we would be able to go back and look that up and investigate from their and then do the corrective actions and notify both party owners of what is happening. commissioner lee: typically, you

say that the system should not -- we would prefer that they did not leak into the neighbor's yard. >> definitely. we do not want anything from one property going into the next property. commissioner clinch: regarding the soils information, i think it is great that someone acknowledged that there may be soils reports available for the adjacent property that could be used, but who will make the determination that it is appropriate for this? because that takes some technical understanding. >> there would have to be a guideline set up for exactly how it will be done. that would be something that we would put together and have for that person that is doing that. that is over the counter, to say that it is or is not an issue. >> commissioners?

any other questions? i just want to thank the inspector for being involved in this, and we would like to stay involved in it. i think it is important for us to communicate with puc and other policymakers. we want to support the gray water initiatives in san francisco, but we also want to make sure they are done safely and that it does not infringe upon other properties and cause other problems later. commissioner walker: the part about being able to identify certain areas that are going to trigger issues -- i think that is an important issue, especially as we experienced the water rise that we know is coming. if there is a way that we could make -- you know, pay more attention to those or a process that catches those, i think that would be helpful.

commissioner murphy: that is great that you are willing to help the public and advise them on it. very important that it is kept as inexpensive as possible. homeowners are not going to be able to afford a soil report. it costs all kinds of money, and they are not going to go there, and they are just going to go into their own system. if we keep the money out of it, then you're going to get people that will come for advice on how to do with the correct way. that is how i see it. >> you talked about the gray water and the price. there are other things happening with storm water, collection, rain barrels used for landscape in this as well. again, if that is something coming in, somebody doing a great water system and rainbow system, combining that, that saves a lot of money and time, and we are able to help them out as much as possible. commissioner murphy: great.

that is a good idea. thank you very much. >> public comment on items six? then item seven, discussion and possible action regarding a proposed administrative proposedab-084 guidelines for the structural review of continuous tied down systems used to resist overturning of light-framed would shear walls in response to comments from the building inspection commission. then i guess, you have before you a recommendation from our code advisory committee that this ab-047, which is the specifics of middle reports special inspections and file exceptions of smokey joe's systems, smokeyab-084, guidelines for structural review of continuous tied down systems used to resist overturning of light-framed with sheer walls,

have been approved,vetted by the code advisory committee and forwarded to the commission for your approval. commissioner walker: are we taking items seven and eight together? >> i would like to. item eight was formed in conjunction with the fire department, and we have the fire marshal year to help -- here to help explain a little bit about the guidelines. >> quickly on items seven, this was before us a few months ago. i have some comments from the committee. >> can you go over those comments and the resolution of them for us as a structural engineer? >> i cannot remember exactly. there was a concern about the fact that they had used some terminology referring to the need for posts.

when you do need some sort of vertical compression element adjacent to the tiedown, which will have a counter action force in the wall. that was one of the comments. i have forgotten -- i think there was a total of three comments, but we have gone back three months ago. needless to say, i feel like we have discussed the issues. they removed some wording and added some. commissioner murphy: what has changed from the previous system? >> this is to allow the use of the continuous tension rods systems, which are say which between studs as opposed to a more traditional hold down. these are more continuous.

not to advocate one system over another, but they tend to be cleaner and simpler to install, and you do not have problems with old lining up in the right place and having to do a lot of drilling into the post to have the holddown be installed properly. any other comments or questions? commissioner walker: could we hear from the fire marshal? thank you for coming this morning. >> it is a pleasure to be here. i am just here to let you all know that the fire department has worked with the code advisory committee for a number of years on the smoke control bulletin. we feel is necessary. we are happy with the wording, and the code advisory committee was also happy in the end. it is a necessary document that smoke control systems are complicated systems, required in all new high-rise buildings and

in some other buildings, specialty occupancies, but they involve many different disciplines -- sprinkler systems, fire alarm systems, architectural elements of the building, mechanical systems -- and they require a lot of coordination between the various trades and making sure that all these various systems of comply with the smoke control report. this document will give guidance to designers to know what is required for these of middle and approval of these systems. -- for the submittal and approval of the systems. commissioner lee: any other questions? public comment? -- commissioner hechanova: other questions? public comment? >> seeing that, item nine -- >> do we need to approve?

i move to approve administrative bulletins or support or whatever the language is, both 7 and 8. commissioner murphy: second. commissioner hechanova: the motion has been moved and seconded. commissioner walker: yes. commissioner lee: yes. commissioner mar: yes. commissioner murphy: yes. commissioner clinch: yes. >> the motion passes. item nine, directors report. 9a, update on dbi's finances. >> pamela levin. there is not any real remarkable difference between our projection from last month to this month. the revenues come in strongly. primarily, the revenues are in charge for services, but there are the licenses -- the

apartment licenses and hotel licenses that come in with the property tax have come in a little stronger than we expected. and we are still showing savings in several areas of expenditures and ending up with a year-end balance similar to last year -- i mean last month. i will be happy to answer any questions. commissioner murphy: have we brought back any new people in the last 30 days? >> we have brought back one payroll per cent, but the mayor's office has released the rest of our requisitions except for the housing inspector positions, so we will be posting those positions up on our website, and those are mostly

clerical positions at this point. we are in the process of hiring could we will mechanical engineers. they did interview for that position on monday, and i believe there are offers being made in that field, and we are interviewing for one structural engineer, and that will take place next week for the civil engineer. >> we also in the last 30 days had interviews for electrical inspectors. requisitions have been approved, but now everything is in dhr. commissioner walker: i have a question. maybe it has been answered in previous reports, but the seismic retrofitting budget and our actual are significantly different. were we estimating more people would be taking advantage of a voluntary retrofitting program? >> yes, but that is not in this funding.

we had -- i do not have the figures of how many permits have been issued, but it is a small amount. commissioner walker: it is underperforming what we anticipated we would be getting as a result of the voluntary program? that is a good thing to look at because it is pretty significant. being under revenue, just for that particular thing. >> we can report back on that. >> is there any public comment on item 9a? seeing none, -- oh.

>> good morning. member of the san francisco coalition for responsible growth. i just want to commend you for the to stop you will be hauling, began with the electrical, because we have been behind and we have been trying to get appointments with them. like the building department, which are great. we usually get those with about 24 hours, but you do not get that too often with anybody else, so again, just wanted to say thank you and commend you for getting this on. we really wanted to commend you. thank you. >> i have included in your package a proposed ordinance that has not been introduced yet, but i wanted to bring it to your attention. it is regarding the public art fee adn pub -- and public artwork trust fund.

this would be similar to the development legislation passed last year that would require dbi to collect and monitor the fee and the actual installation before we sign off on a final certificate of occupancy. i have worked with both the public arts commission and the planning department on this legislation, and we are in agreement with the concept to make it easier for people or developers to pay all of their fees in one general location, so we are working very closely with this and monitoring it very closely. commissioner walker: this is of particular interest to me. i chaired the san francisco arts council where we discussed the issue, made recommendations that they do some of what they are doing. in the c3 area downtown, there

is an art development fee in all private developments. 1% goes to create art on-site. the problem is that nobody manages this. nobody has any idea what actual pieces of art are actually created as a result of this. and this actually goes a step further in allowing for wider use within the framework of the money where it can actually be used not just for creating artwork on the site, but space for arts activity and maintenance, i believe, of public art. there is still conversations about this. i personally, of course, would like to see the district

expanded to be able to accommodate more arts focus funding. just as an fyi, our public developments, anything we do as a public building, requires a 2% contribution to this fund for arts either on site, and if this is passed, eventually, it would be for art space and maintenance of that facility. this is a good thing because i think it will give us the ability to manage and determine what is being done under this program. so i thank you for working with them. commissioner hechanova: any other comments or questions on this issue? commissioner murphy: there is no additional cost to developers on this? >> correct. >> is there any public comment on 9b? 9c, update on permit tracking systems.

>> deputy director of administrative services. i wanted to update you on the progress of the permit tracking system procurement. i have asked this morning our person that i have been dealing with at the hrc to attend the meeting in case you have questions for him. so he is also here. i am pleased to announce that we have now submitted or sent out a notice of intent to award a contract to acella government software and 21 tech, which is a minority-owned firm.

the issue is that there is a five-day protest period, in which any vendor that has submitted a proposal who believes that they should have been selected and they have sufficient documentation of a violation of the city process or ordinance or law -- they can submit a protest. this is something we work with the city attorney's office if and when that occurs, but they have five days to do that. we then begin negotiating the contract with the vendor that was issued the intent to award. as you know, we want to have a contract by august. the vendor knows that we want to aggressively seek execution of a contract. i believe that it is feasible