morning. this is the regular meeting of the building inspection collect -- commission. the first item on the agenda is roll-call. [roll call] we have a quorum. the next item is a president announcements. >> good morning.

i would like to say thank you very much to moran for not just a bully, but doing a great job for sitting in my stead as i have been away for the last meeting. the other thing is, i would also like to make some comments, saluting the staff here on upcoming retirement. patricia beasley with the housing and it inspection division will be retiring, i think, june 24. along with that, and gerald mcdermott, an electrical inspector, also towards the end of this month. ann aherne, an anchor for the

commission for quite a few years, will also be retiring in july. the category here is that they have a boy served the city and have more importantly always put their good work through the efforts of the department, and for that, we will always be thankful. also, i would like to commend the staff. dan lowry, chief building inspector. steve penelli, the chief plumbing inspector. rosemary, a housing inspector. john, and the acting senior building inspector.

they have provided a whole range of categories of performance ranging from addressing nov's and inspections. when i look at the numbers, it is really commendable. again, thank them for their continued service, and good job and good work. also, i would also like to say the effort of the commission would be to also maintain and keep moving forward with the balance of the year, strong support for not only staff, but for the categories of how the department will continue to perform and take on the challenges of reduced staff, but

at the same time, probably the ingrowing load of good work that is coming into the city. all of that, i hope, will provide an uptick to not only the growing economy in san francisco, but also our department, and hopefully, a push to provide additional training and equipment will come into play. looking forward to the results of the contract negotiations to finalize the permit tracking system, of which, pamela has been strongly involved with through this period of time.

chief plumbing inspector pene lli helped out with those restaurant owners in chinatown, helping with the fats, oils, and greecgrease. chief building inspector dan lowery, dbi staff that contributed to the investigation of the most recent fire on june 2. also, the collaboration of our department with other departments staff to make, not only more efficient city with the services we provide, but also paying attention to the health, safety, and welfare of the community of san francisco. that is all. thank you.

>> is there any public comment on the president's announcements? >> item 3. update on vacant buildings/ blight issue. >> good morning, president, commissioners. john henson, acting director of code enforcement. i want to thank you for your opening remarks. i must insist we are only as good as the fine building inspection support staff we have. this was put on by questions from members at the last hearing.

the questions related to the vacant amendment buildings. this is a new ordinance that was subject to a building code, as a result of the board of supervisors. the effective date was september 2009. code section 103.4. this ordinance requires annual registration, a registration fee to be paid [inaudible] before you you have a packet listing 427 active addresses. of those, 291 have paid and registered their buildings. the balance are in different stages of the code enforcement process.

keep in mind, over the past two years or so, there were 300 other buildings that were evaluated. the owners responded and provided us with industry documents and information. they were declared as not needed to be on the active list. commissioner murphy: what is the annual fee for that? >> $765. that involves the registration form, ownership, other information, other requirements for the building. commissioner murphy: so it is the same fee as a single-family house, as in multiple units? >> yes.

now, if you look at any active address on the list, it does not give an indication of the amount of staff time involved in any of those entries. when a particular address comes to our attention, we do a quick evaluation and then send out a letter with all of the criteria involved in registering the building. we give it a timeline. if no action is taken, they get a second courtesy letter. after that time line expires, our building inspector goes into the field, and if appropriate, will issue a notice of violation. then in the process, if nothing happens, it

is scheduled for a hearing. if all of those actions are taken, we have one of our support staff full-time entering those actions and updating the list on a regular basis. the list before you was from two days ago. that has changed since then. that is the general overview. happy to take any questions you might have appeare. >> i have a question about the novs. i assume these are one that our department sends out? >> yes, if they have not responded to the instructions and registered, a zero standard notice of violation is issued. >> what are they in violation of

when you send it out? >> they are in violation of the ordinance -- >> ok, i understand. it is just that they are required to register. >> in the legislation, there is a whole other list of criteria that talk about the requirements for normal building code. keeping the building watertight, numerous other things. even though they are not directly referred to, the fact that they are not registering the building, it is opening up those possibilities. so you could have a situation where you have an address, but we do not stop there. we would go on an issue additional violations for broken windows, unsafe conditions.

commissioner lee: so those will follow after? >> after were possibly during. there are so many addresses involved, there are always more issues to be dealt with then time permits. --aft after or possibly during. once we go through the list, we can do further scrutiny on particular addresses. commissioner lee: is there any collaboration with other departments, maybe dpw, the department of health, where there might be excessive dumping of garbage in some of the abandoned buildings, so that it does not fall just on our

department? >> we are starting to see more of that. initial concerns are brought to us about vacant buildings. as a result of dealing with that, there would be a need for a referral to another department. >> good morning. dbi deputy director. we get a lot of board supervisor inquiry about this. lately, we have been getting a lot of the hunters point bayview area -- complaints coming before you. that seems to be, more or less, the hot area. just this week, we had a board of supervisors inquiry at manna church. over the course of the month, we have referred a couple of cases to the city attorney. we expect to make a few cases.

dpw, ourselves, we do work together -- for instance, a lot of this is carried over to the blight ordinance. dpw carries most of the water. they are responsible, certainly, for graffiti, responsible for a vacant lots that are overgrown. garbage on the sidewalk. i would say probably the biggest crossover and confusion is the private buildings in san francisco. on waller street, the biggest issue was homeless teenagers sleeping and leaving garbage. the complaint came to us to do something about it. we went out there and had two notices of violation that we had written over the last couple of years and we followed up on that. that will be scheduled for a director's hearing.

like john said, there are a lot of addresses. a lot of the addresses on their have come off. to be honest with you, these are all buildings that are in some state of distress. we are dealing with owners that do not have the financial resources or expertise to deal with them. we do our best with them. we give them time and work with them. when there are a lot of complaints from neighbors, they seem to get more of the attention. commissioner murphy: i think you may have covered it, but i did not understand. what is the policy for buildings with a lot of graffiti? >> that is under the blight ordinance. dpw, that is their purview. there was an ordinance six months prior to the vacant

building -- i forget the supervisor -- i think it was mirkarimi. when that ordinance was written, dpw was the lead agency for graffiti blight. we are more in a supporting role. we would be more like the broken windows. commissioner murphy: how about overgrown vacant lots? >> it is in our housing code. we can certainly address it. but the lead agency is usually dpw. we could get health involved in it, if it was deemed to be a health hazard. commissioner murphy: so the complaint would come into you, to dbi first? >> generally, yes, it would start at the third floor as a

routine complaint. then it would be routed to the sixth floor, to the building inspector we have assigned to that particular task. >> because we have had a wet spring, through june, i am sure the growth of that, especially on lots that are vulnerable, especially this summer, to brush fires. we normally think about that as outside of san francisco, but is that a possibility, where there might be a higher category of keeping an eye out for these large lots, open lots with weed growth that will ultimately become fire material by the end of summer? >> what comes to mind is

alemany housing projects. it seemed to be a lot of grass fires. you might see something like that in hunters point, around the middle point. if that acreage is not taking care of, certainly, can be a fire danger. the fire department is looking at that. most of that is publicly-owned land, so that would not be in our per view. dpw, fire department, health. commissioner mar: on the list of designations, what does oa stand for? >> order of abatement? we have gone through the abatement process, notice of violation, or we sent a letter

out, no action. we gave a reasonable amount of time and then a second notice of violation. then we set up what is called a director's hearing. what i find for a lot of these owners, they do not show up. sometimes, they are elderly, sometimes they are out of town. we send a letter to where the tax bill is sent, and oftentimes they do not pick up their mail. commissioner mar: if the second part is a registered paid, and there is an oa next to other things, is that another violation? >> from a previous year.

commissioner hechanova: any more questions? thank you. >> is there any public comment on item 3? >> good morning, commissioners. my name is nancy. i live next door to a vacant building that was vacant for 28 months. it was vacated november 2008 before the ordinance went into affect. it was finally registered in may 2010. the owners return to a property in march 2011. i want to give you some background of the problems i experienced with the implementation of this ordinance.

i experienced all the issues of blight that this ordinance addresses, but the code was not enforced. repeated attempts to have the law enforced resulted in nothing. this is a good neighborhood and did not attract the people that would have normally come in. when the police were summoned to shut the doors and inspect the property, there was no posted notice so they could not contact the owner because the sign posting requirement of the ordinance had not been respected. so the current name, address, owner of record, authorized agent, was not noticeable. there was also a notice of default on the property. t