strategies and certainly have found that the rates were significant to the lower levels. interspersed going forward, we have unions that upon mutual agreement, that is it we are able to reach agreement, they would move in. it is a comparable plan. plants that provide technically the same benefits they now receive. we do not reach agreement with them to move, then we will in negotiations to achieve cost savings similar to those which will be affected by the cautionary measure that would apply to the employees. so they are participating in pension and benefit reform in a unique manner which addresses their membership in the pers system. i hope that addresses your question. supervisor mirkarimi: it did.

hr is the hedge, but i am trying to lead up from the two other departments those that are implicated in the administration and negotiation and processing, i think, of these objectives. i know they are very much on our radar. is interesting to see -- it is interesting to see what this process is in terms of how it is being managed. it sounds like it is not adversarial, which is good. sounds like it is not antagonistic, which is good. people get to be pretty uppity when it comes to talk of conversion from their system. when it comes to the posse of san francisco employees that are being asked to consider some manage retreat, that is what i find interesting.

i wanted to hear from a couple of the departments, which is why i asked it a couple of different ways, how this is being approached. if it is approached in a mutually agreeable way, i think that is the right way to go, and i wanted to hear what resources are being applied towards these objectives. >> you bet. we have had consultation with the retirement system on this and the city attorney's office as well because it is very technical. as you point out, we have people in seiu, people in the provision offices, district attorney's office as well, so all of those are also members in different programs. supervisor mirkarimi: which is a pertinent subject because today's category before us is public safety, so that is what is the itemized before this committee today. you have a substantial portion of people that we're

entertaining on a 1000-person front, so i think it should not go unnoticed. but if you were not able to achieve any of this conversion, would this be a valid change? >> no, actually, what we are doing is that the ballot provides the option. it says if we mutually agreed to go into the plan for active employees, these are the plans that they would be in, and it lays them out, and it also sets forth that we will achieve equivalent savings if they do not go through the negotiation process. we achieved our savings either way but in a way that the members are more comfortable with and they do not feel like they are being forced into it. should this go forward, we would not need another change to the charter. i believe there is a question

about the as-needed employees receiving benefits but not in the health-care system. people will remember who were here at the time that in 2006, we reached an agreement with our largest labor organization to create a health plan for people who did not qualify for membership in health services under conditions of the charter. these are people who work as needed, is there characterization. temporary exempt employees. some of them worked very sporadically, but some of them work again for months at a time on a regular basis and have significant hours, although not quite enough to reach the eligibility rule for the health service system coverage. so we negotiated a fund of money, $2 million per year, and negotiated a program, and we enrolled those individuals in it. it is not a comparable benefit

to that enjoyed by active full members of the health service system. i think that should be our ultimate goal, to get them into a comparable benefit. the way it works is if they work a certain number of hours over time, they are able to enroll. we have had discussions before, and i hope we will continue to have discussions with the health service system to move these individuals into the health service system purview even if not the same plan initially. because we believe they are the experts in health benefits management, so that is our continued conversation we hope to have with them. supervisor mirkarimi: there is a little bit strange irony that the home health-care workers would not be enrolled in the same health system and that they would actually be on the fringe of being asked to go through healthy san francisco, which is not the same, really caliber of

assistance, i have to say that it is a standout in the for a classification of workers, they do not make much money to begin with. they really are paid very little on the minimum wage. i cannot expect them to afford cobra at the rate that they bring in, so if there was a redesign in trying to bring them in, this is a lower class of worker that i think would merit more considerably. and for this classification, something that has come to my attention -- it worries me a little bit, and it obviously worries them a little bit as well. >> we are not involved in the creation of that benefit. we simply had a similar group, which was a lower hours, lower- paid group, which we built into their permit, but we would certainly value the opportunity

to work with the in-home support services program and the health service system to identify ways to improve coverage. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, director. supervisor kim: i do not want these questions to come across as nit picky, but i am curious because some had leftover funds, so other departments may also do this, but i am curious what we use facility rentals and vehicle rentals for. >> we have primary public safety examinations where we have, -- as you know, and public safety, they are entirely promotional. we have to administer examination system times 800 applicants, and we do not have any facilities large enough. we also have to in order to avoid the appearance of favoritism, we have to bring in

the examination graders from outside from police departments and fire departments across the country. we fly these individuals in that house them. they have to be on readings panels interviewing candidates and scoring them and scoring their responses to written examinations. we do not pay them for it, but we fly them here. we hope they want to come to san francisco, and we put them up, and occasionally, we have to rent large facilities. our second facility is on cesar job as st. -- chavez street. last year, we had a video-based exam that we administered over the course of a month in groups, so we were able to use our own facility for that, so that was a cheaper way of doing it. supervisor chu: thank you. just a question from me -- you spoke about the largest changes in your budget primarily having

to do with preparing for upcoming labor negotiations the department will have to spearhead in addition to a non- general-fund its city hall fellow work order. on the workers compensation component, can you remind me -- you talked about the increase, but are the claims of budgeted within your department? >> we actually -- and i have our deputy director here, so he will tell me if i answer incorrectly, but it is kind of direct billing. not even really work order. this assumes what the cost will be, and we would say to the fire department, if they have an unusually high number, they will give us more money to pay those claims, so the departments have workers' comp in their budgets. supervisor chu: in the mayor's budget, it shows total workers' compensation costs over the years, and it shows the trends as high as 2007, and it dips

down somewhere in 2009, and it looks like our trajectory is going up a bit. i am wondering if there is a trend where we are seeing claims going up, and what is that attributable to? the rising cost of medical costs, or the incidence of more claims? >> it is not really the incidence of more claims. it is the increase in medical costs, primarily. we have taken steps to reduce our cost in addition to the electronic processing, i have described. we implemented net worth brighter networks, but this is something over which we largely do not control. we are getting our economies through the administration. supervisor chu: the final question that i think is a pretty important topic -- can you give us an update on civil service reform and what the next focus of the department will be? >> certainly. we have a list of issues we have

identified and presented to the civil service commission, which we are hoping they will address soon. we continue to be interested in rule updates, for example. as you know, the board approved the employee relations ordinance, and there are now civil service rules that conflict with that. it is our intention to work closely with the commission to address issues of concern, and they will take those in the order that they desire to do so. supervisor chu: is there any big proposal going forward, or a number of different small items going through the commission? >> i would not say there is one dramatic proposal, very dramatic from last year. supervisor chu: perhaps we could have the civil service commission speak to the progress. thank you. and before we go to mr. rose's report, i did pass out a sheet that shows an amended project

closeout list from the budget analyst, so you should have that before you. >> madam chair and members of the committee, our recommended reductions are detailed on pages 13-15, and a total $91,000. of those recommended reductions, 100% our general fund reductions. 26,500 or about 29%, our ongoing reductions, and it with style -- still out an increase of 1.9% in the apartment's 2011-2012 budget. we also recommend closing out prior year and expanded general fund incumbrances. as the chair just stated, we have revised that she'd and given the committee a new amended sheet, which totals

$217,618, together, our recommendation would result in and said it $361,708 in savings, a savings of $309,118. as i understand it, the department does concur with our recommendations. supervisor chu: thank you very much. given the amended document before us, and then the balance of the recommendations, can we take those without objection? ok, we will do that without objection. thank you for your presentation, and we will not be seeing you next week. ok, the next department is the civil service commission. for this department, we do not have a budget analyst report to go along with it, so we will be looking for the department head to provide some context. >> good morning.

anita sanchez for the civil service commission. the budget is a bare bones budget to carry out the merit system provision of the charter to provide qualified individuals for the city and county service in a fair and equitable manner. the commission is appeals and policy-making body. the department handles appeals and requests for hearings, conducts merit system review, inspection services and audits, and performs a limited role in the administration of the employer-employee relations ordinance by conducting wreck -- representation and the certification and legislation of unfair practices charges involving peace officers. as mentioned, there is no report issued for this budget. i would be happy to respond to

any questions you may have. i believe the committee wanted some update on the civil service reform issues, and the commission has actually received a number of proposals from the department of human resources. i have convened a committee of departmental representatives from major departments and employee organizations to review proposals that are presented to the commission. we are taking a global look at all our rules and policies, specifically looking at the leaves of absence rules and, i believe, generally, in making the rules responsive to the operational needs of our city departments and personnel management.

i would be happy to answer any questions you may have. supervisor chu: taking a look at your budget because we do not have a budget analyst report on this item, your budget looks fairly flat. the total budget looks to be increasing by about $20,000 or so, and that appears to be coming from the mandatory fringe benefits, correct? >> exactly. supervisor chu: no significant changes in staffing, materials, personnel, supplies? >> no, there are none. supervisor chu: you had talked about convening a working group of individuals to evaluate the proposals that have been brought before you, and the commission will be taking this up. do you have a sense but when the commission will be reviewing those? how does that generally work in your operation? >> we will be presenting these proposals to the commission. also there will be public hearings and bald and notices to everyone, to various parties,

and they can chime in in terms of these proposals, the effect, and what they feel about them, and then we will draft proposals, and they will be posted and adopted by the commission after a full hearing. supervisor chu: do the proposals generally come from the department of human resources as they are going through labor negotiations and contractual conversations with labor unions and apartments? >> actually, they come from our department and other city departments that have some issues regarding the rules. supervisor chu: ok, so it sounds like they come from various sources. in terms of our responsiveness to those changes and evaluation, is there ever a time line under which we have got to have action either approving or disapproving of proposals? back after a complete hearing,

we are required to post our rules for 10 days before any adoption, and we are also required to meet and confer on the changes with employee organizations. on the average, i think we get through these rules within six months or so. from proposal or idea to actual adoption. supervisor chu: ok. do you think it is possible for you to provide information about some of the rules that have been enacted in the past year perhaps or some of the things we're working on or some of the things the commission will be considering in the coming year? because they have certainly a very big impact on our operations. we definitely want to see these

rules considered at the commission in a timely way. given that we did not have any recommendations from the budget analyst and any report on this item and there are no questions from the committee, why don't we move on to the next apartment, which is the public library. >> good morning. city librarian. i want to start by basically talking about the fact that at a time when we are seeing our neighboring libraries with threatened closures of library services, in san francisco, it is impressive to see that we continue to innovate libraries and expand services. this past saturday, we opened the 19th project associated with the branch library improvement

project. we will be opening the visitation valley library on july 30 and the new or take a library in august, and the golden gate valley in september. that will mean that we will have just about all 24 neighborhood libraries completed, and we will be beginning construction of the bay view library next month, and the north beach will be moving forward. the eir was recently accepted an completed, so thank you for your support. the library proposed budget is placed at about $86.8 million, and that includes the payment of our debt service. it also includes a healthy $9.1 million for our books and materials budget. it does maintain our current

service level in terms of branch hours, and we continue to do strong out -- to our schools and students -- strong outreach to our schools and students. we have about 140 computers available to the public. this last year, that represented about 500,000 library hours of use by patrons. we are expanding access to our laptop lending program. we have about 50 libraries that currently have the laptop lending program in operation, and we expect to expand that to an additional 12 in the next couple of years, completing the project. as each new library opens, we have the laptop lending program. workforce development is also really important. our lab is open for folks either i need a transition, learning how to apply for new jobs through resume writing

workshops, etc., and that has become very important during this tough economic times. we continue to focus on our technology infrastructure, expanding our band with capacity and our wireline network. that is also important in terms of equity for our diverse community. our virtual presence through the website, more focused on online learning and replacing computers is also part of our emphasis, so you will see an increase in our i.t. budget for the -- for that. i do want to take a moment to talk about the five-year outlook, and a lot of it is contingent on continuing to have healthy revenue on our property tax base line and the general fund contribution as part of the library's preservation fund. we have been managing our fund balance to make sure that we complete our branch library improvement program, so there is two project that i think you should know about.

we are relying on our fund balance to complete those. we also want to maintain our service levels. the number of hours, for example. the charter requires based on the library preservation fund 1211 hours per week. we are actually exceeding that, which is also a good thing, so we maintain our facilities open at least six if not seven days a week throughout the city. we need to obviously focus on maintaining labor costs so we do not see an increase. matter of fact, this year, we have seen a reduction. again, we continue to focus on our core mission, which is books and materials, maintaining service hours, and the information technology infrastructure. in terms of the analyst recommendations, we will continue to work with mr. rose to reach agreement on the proposed cuts so that it does not adversely affect our public

services, so that concludes my overview of the library's budget. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you very much for the presentation. the new libraries, do they have identified funding sources, or is the plan to issue bonds in the future in order to pay for the substantial repairs and construction work? >> we would corporate -- prefer not to incur additional debt through revenue bonds, so it is our plan to look at the fund balance of the library's preservation fund for growth. right now, the good news is that if we close out projects, any additional funds go back to the program reserve to complete the bayview, so we are confident, and that is why we have to make sure we manage that reserve carefully, not only to balance the remaining project needs, but also the maintenance of our overall service level, so i appreciate that question. supervisor chu: for the projects

that have come on line, no and no. projects have opened up across the district and the city. in our district, we saw the park side open up, and hopefully soon, we will see or take it. -- c. ortega -- see ortega. >> a couple of projects, we have a contingency fund, so we work carefully with the contractors and dpw to make sure they are not only on schedule but on budget, and that is the good news. over the next couple of months, we will complete all but two of the projects, so we are in a very intense portion of the program leading to a conclusion. supervisor chu: a quick comment, i went to visit log cabin ranch and saw the library that was there, and i wanted to thank you for taking the time to put the

resources out there and but those services. i think the kids there certainly appreciate that. >> the juvenile justice center also has a library, and they do great work. supervisor chu: thank you. why don't we go to the budget analyst report? >> our recommended reductions are detailed on pages 21 and 22. the total $486,476. none our general fund reductions. they are all ongoing reductions. they would still allow an increase of $2,890,776 or a 3.5% increase in the department's budget. we are still working with the department and will report back to you next week. supervisor chiu: thank you. first of all, mr. librarian, i want to thank you for all the work you have been doing on the north beach library. i mentioned before that your

sort often jealous of my colleagues' wonderful new libraries in their districts, and hopefully we will be able to move forward as quickly as possible. i was happy to see in the budget book that you call out the work you had been doing around the language access ordinance and helping to translate into different languages. this is based on a piece of legislation that i passed in 2009. could you talk about the work you're doing in that area, specifically what you're doing, what you are translating. these translations have not been called out by other departments, and i want to get a sense of what your doing and whether there are things you're doing that could be done in conjunction with other departments to make sure that we have full language access across the city. >> absolutely. i appreciate the question and the opportunity to talk about what we're doing in that arena. first of all, our newly redesigned web pages in multiple languages, and that has seen a

tremendous amount of increase. any resource we have in terms of virtual language -- multiple languages, we make available in virtual presence. specifically to the language access ordinance, i will have our deputy librarian speak to you. >> good morning. just wanted to say the translation we do at the library is mostly around our resources and services, so we came to insure that all of our services are available in all languages that the patron needs them in, and that could be anything from cited or collection resources to the staff that provide the reference to them or collection service. as well, we did translations of all of our print materials around our programs and services so the brochure you get that explains how your library could work, the application to get a library card, the website,

and we also collect actively in languages, both in print and in electronic resources, so we are looking at making sure that we understand the new census data to make sure resources are available in locations across the city in all those formats. supervisor chiu: at this point, beyond chinese and spanish, what are you translating into? >> russia is also a pretty common translation language. we also provide programming in those languages. we are looking at the growing populations in tagalog. vietnamese is also commonly requested. supervisor chiu: thank you. i appreciate that work. supervisor kim: i just had questions about some of the vacancies that exist in the department, some of which have been vacant since 2000. has that impacted your ability [inaudible]