old. they are cast with rewriting all of that. there also cast with the plugging into the city family. we had one meeting yesterday with the department of emergency service, and they want to know and the event of an emergency what was went to happen, who was going to take care of the buildings, and they felt that when an earthquake happens within five or six hours they will be tasked with hohousing fr a great number of people. before they are allowed into the building, one of our staff member would have to certify it. there was a lot of, talk about a program. it is a system within the city. the engineers go in and walk through the building and make a number of observations. they work through the station engineers on site. they get an earthquake plan to

restart the building after an event. this program is just getting going. we're working to establish the policy of how you work of building and to is going to do it. the city buildings, dpw have a lot of engineers. that is essentially what they're working on now. they also work with mod, dpw, mayor's office, police and fire, and they provide a lot of training. for instance this month and last month they gave disaster coordinator training to every employee in the department. we had done it, but we have not

have that training in five years. everyone was very rusty. tony and that gave a very good presentation, and everyone went through it and is recertified. -- tony and matt gave a very good presentation, and everyone went through it and is recertified. basically they are getting really caught up on the two or three-year lapse where the rest of the departments have moved on. they eventually wrote the book on the disaster coordination. for the next four or five months, six months, that is really all they will do. i plan on having one of the gentleman coming here and take questions next month.

to go i will take into contemplation what you just said. >> i will take into contemplation what you just said. the reason the president wanted it on the agenda is what you just said. i certainly feel battlbetter abt it. i think the public needs to know where we're at with that. that is it. >> i think when mr. gecko and mr. green show up at the next meeting, that they would provide what seems to be a practical and real time line for them to achieve these goals that they might have revised. it there just shipping papers around, i think we need to be objective and say what are the true goals. the time clock for the disaster

is a big shadow that is on the city. right now we can say we're not prepared. >> we have a lot of work to do. we are tasked with the safety of all buildings of san francisco. not being in with the city family when the planning was going on for who was born to do what do to budget problems -- for who was going to do what, has made a very difficult. we are getting up to speed, and we will make that presentation to you. >> let's say we had an earthquake next week. what is the chain of command? the mayor's office? >> the eoc on turk street. that is were everything funnels from. all of the information is brought in their, and it is brought into the different

departments. >> can we have a chart that basically shows a flow chart of responsibilities? >> they exist. yes. >> thank you. >> item 6e, update on cue- mattock and status of activation. -- q-mattic. >> one of the things we need to do is hire the cashier's that commissioner murphy was disgusting. -- q-matic. we have six starting on monday. in order to be able to roll out the program and be able to provide the information you have been discussing that you need about the system and the public,

what we needed to do was to get real life feedback from our customers. last week i sent out to the public advisory committee are request that if anyone was coming in this week and they would agree to have us meet them and go through the system and have them pulled a ticket and have the number called and have them go from the first floor to the pit floor in back, the traveling between the floors, all of the things that are concerns of people to work on that and see where the bugs are, see where we need to provide additional information, to see if what is on the screens for q- matic gave enough information so that you knew you did not need to go to this area, you needed to go to fifth floor directly. all that information.

we want to continue doing that type of testing with real-light situations before the prwe rolls out. because of that out reach we did, and we will do more outreach and discussion tomorrow during the meeting, that out reach we have done, we have had three customers, two were scheduled to come in but then they canceled it. anything could happen. they could say i am going to come down and the morning and then something come up and they do not come down monday morning. we routed customers to the first floor at the central permit hero to the second floor to the information center, information counter to the fifth floor and

to where it says the building plan would check plan. the third customer went from information counter to the fifth floor, and then went to the building plan check with plans. went to mechanical, tried to go to puc and permit issuance. and the folks were not there, and we cannot reach them, so that points out where there is a problem with the system it people are not there, and what the impact is on the system and whether someone can pay. so there are a lot of things -- we learned all of this with three customers. we learned that we need to have a list of the services where it can be directly issued.

so someone can come up and see these are the services. we knew we needed to provide these anyway. what we needed to do is see what level we needed to provide to the people and customers. we have an issue where it says one thing -- it is not contradictory, but the screen that says that you do not need to pull a ticket for this instance, but we need to make sure we have it somewhere that is not just on the q-matics screen. the idea is when this rules out we can be successful, and that everyone it looks -- that everyone looks good. there are many things that need to be done. this will take a while. we're hoping that we get more

people that are willing to spend an extra five minutes to go through and start from the beginning to pick their tickets up and go through the process. >> commissioners. >> questions about our reatreaco the testers. what do we tell these people? what is the intent or benefit? to go the first thing i wanted to do was to make sure that they understood that they are testing the routing system, and that we wanted their input and suggestions. we have on lonly gone to the pa but we hope to get other people involved. we asked them to give us a call

beforehand or the time they're downstairs. i have people available, and they go with the customer to the counter or the individual -- on our side, if the person doing it on our side runs into a problem, they will go through training. it is really a greeting of the customer and taking them through the process. >> what i mean is to we explain to these customers what we're trying to achieve and how it benefits them? >> yes. >> how was that done? is that verbally or something in writing? >> we have not put anything in writing at this point in time. i have been doing it verbally.

>> why don't we put it in writing or a flow chart for a series of benefits? >> when they come, what we do? we walked each person through the system? -- we walk each person through the system? wouldn't you like to give them instructions and they follow it. maybe afterwards how about some survey of the customer to say what you think of the system, does that benefit you? >> yes. >> comments? it seems as if this dry run went without instructions as to how to assemble or go through the process, and it almost becomes so much more time intensive than one can really lease, given that

some of the individuals may have gone through the system before, the process before, that if they had some adjustments to wear their sequence of achieving the objective in goal here can be better accomplished than a lot of this trying to fix along the way. so is there someone that could also take us through the system on a report next meeting? >> sure, we can set up something. we have done that for the pac, so we would be more than happy to do that. the you want us to show you how it works at the meeting or actually show up and act as if you're moving plans? >> will it be operationally effective at the next meeting? -- active and that the next meeting or by the next meeting?

>> we can try. >> how long will it take? >> i do not want to put something out that does not work. i need to see as we go through some more of the testing. the level of instruction needs to be at the level of the individuals can understand, and that is what we are trying to get feedback on. how much is intuitive by just going up and it says building permit, pressed a button. -- press button. we can write instructions at a level that will be most useful we're trying to ascertain. the vendor -- >> [inaudible] >> i am not confused. >> let's get the testing results

completed to the category that we can take it to the next level of better service to the customers. >> ok. >> item 6gf, update on other technology projects. >> our records conversion project, we were able to hire in the 1408'ss that are working in the house to prepare the old records for image. we have not left the image contracts yet base that we need to have an exact number of how many rolls of film we have to be transferred over to be put in the rfp, and we're doing that with existing staff.

the server refresh project, we have talked with both on this, and we are in the process of determining whether we will refresh all of the servers and our server room or refresh some of them and virtual allies others00 -- virtalize others. the department of technology is actually doing that to see if we can save money by using some of their services instead of using all of our services and buying all of our equipment. that is helping us on that program. >> the electronic plan checking,

we are not looking at the contract until after january, that is also after we have the information for the records management for the number of films that have to be converted, and for the number of existing projects that we have that we expect to be converting along with the daily. we're doing that, and that is all expected to be let out in january. that's basically -- steep and nellie is here from the plumbing department and another project we have been working on. -- steve fiftpanelly. >> cheap plumbing inspector. good morning, commissioners. one of the things we are working on that i told you about last month was the boiler permit to operate to be done on line. after all the testing -- we have testing done last month. we have three different

contractors that came in to do a lot of the certifications throughout san francisco, and they did a dry run, and we put it into production for them to test it. since then we have added three or four more contractors to the databases to see if there were any more problems with the system. we have had positive feedback, and by the end of the month we will be able to launch and put it out to the public for use. that is where we're at at this point. >> item 6g, update on new hires. >> since the beginning of the year we have had 13 new hires, which are actually holdovers from last year that were in last year's budget, but they will be starting at the end of this month. there will be 13, six of which are clerks. some will be assigned to the fifth floor to take the place of

the people better now currently being used as information people to get people through the system. they will actually be our receptionists up on the fifth floor so that we will be able transpose back to the function of actually issuing permits. >> the other seven? >> the other seven, we had to plumbing inspectors, we had a structural engineer, we have -- let me see -- >> those seven are in place right now? >> yes. everyone will be in place. we have one person that will start right after labor day, and that is the person in analysts' department. but we also, it just so you know, we do have another 13 requisitions better in the

mayor's office waiting to be released, of which we agree housing inspectors, two building inspectors, to structural engineers, commissioner walker: civil engineers, yes. commissioner hechanova: of these 13, we currently have the ability to budget cost was on the revenue side? >> the 13 that we just tired. you saw we had $1.6 million in savings from last year. if they would have been hired when they were anticipated to be hired, that would have been neutral. we have in our budget to cover the anticipated hires. commissioner hechanova: these 13 that were requisition, in addition to the current 13?

>> yes. commissioner hechanova: in turn, those are moving into the fiscal year? >> these are still holdovers from the last year that we needed to hire. we are not allowed to hire our new hires that were agreed to in the budget, until october of this year. any position that we put in the budget for this year we cannot hire until october. commissioner hechanova: so the services to be provided by these individuals, members of the staff, we cannot provide that level until october? >> no, we have 13 now that we can fill, that will be filling existing position that would have been requisitioned for last year. for this year's budget, we will not be able to hire any of our

anticipated requisitions that we were allowed to hire until october. and just so that everyone knows, the tjpa, their big project, i just signed the purchase orders for those yesterday. those will be coming in in september. we have staff to cover the plan check on those. so we do have staff to cover any and that -- anticipated projects for this year, without the new hires. i also want to bring this to your attention, and it is not a budget item, but the department did receive two awards. one of them was from youth works for our efforts in entering and using intern's as part of our program. another one was a thank you to the department of san francisco

building inspection from west bay housing corporation and satellite housing for the completion of their project for people with developmental disabilities. this was for octavia court. what we anticipate doing, we were going to provide a display case in the department on the first floor and start putting our rewards that we are getting in the cabinet, displaying them for public view. commissioner hechanova: could you hold it so that it can be well seen on the screen? and similarly the other one? >> the other one is class. -- glas. commissioner hechanova: terrific. -- glass. >> and to remind the commissioners, i will be out on sick leave for approximately two months.

pam will be taking care of the financial matters for the department and the appointed a 44 the department. >> is there any public comment on the director's report? 6a through 6g? >> talking about the boiler permits, it is great that they can do this online. however, i had a client who had a problem six years ago. he had to pay penalties, so when

the contractor went to get a permit for the boiler permit online, it was flagged because of a complaint. the amount of money that was paid was applied against the property taxes. housing is now working with me to clean this up. what i'm trying to get at, if we are flagging these, what are we fighting? -- flagging? from what i know, you cannot just removed the flag, so just a suggestion. commissioner hechanova: thank you.

>> chief plumbing inspector. in response to that, for all complaints that we get across the board, working without a permit, one that -- when that complaint is stated in our computer system, we keep that open until there is some type of work being performed and a permit being obtained to make the corrections. just because a fee was paid the fun in the corrections are made. we do not know if the fee has been paid, if it has gone through the tax board. we have no idea if they are doing the corrections. they might pay the fee, but those correction might never be paid. we keep a flight on that property until a permit is obtained, the corrective work has been done, and then we will update that complaint. it has always been that way. commissioner hechanova: if the fee is paid, at what point is

there confirmation from the department that inspection would have been rendered? >> if we have a complete that requires a permit for the correction of that work, once that work is corrected, we will go into the system and abate that complaint. if no permit is obtained, that probably means no work has been done. >> the fee is going to the tax collector car for the directors hearing and assess the cost, not for the permit to correct a problem. these that have not been paid -- fees that have not been paid. commissioner hechanova: so the project, in essence, goes in limbo be on the directors hearing, because there is no confirmation that the work had been performed? >> the inspector works to see if

the work is done. if there is no permit, the work probably had not been done and they were probably tried to get its abated. commissioner hechanova: there always seems to be a lag time with our department. is that always the case? >> i feel on our side, the department, we are trying to get these complaints corrected in a timely manner. by posting correct notifications and sending what is required, once it goes from us to the next set of city attorney, code enforcement, directors hearings, etc., we can only go so far. i understand there is a long time line, but unfortunately,

something to take longer than others. >> quickly, mr. president. in this particular interest, and the boiler permit trying to be obtained on-line was stopped because there were open housing cases where the work was being done, but the property owner had never paid for the assessment of cost. it went to the tax collector because the board put it on their through a lien, and because they were not paid, they were showing up as open cases. in this case, it was a lack of timeliness on the part of the home and not responding to the assessment of cost. if there is an open case, you cannot put your permit online. that was the issue in this case. commissioner hechanova: [inaudible] respo