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] responsibility of the owner to show that it is completed? >> it goes before the supervisors once a year. if it is not paid, the board will report it on their property tax bill. it appears in the special assessments midsection. i think there was more than one

year for this property owner. had he closed those cases out -- which we are now doing for him -- going back to the tax collector to see if he paid those taxes. it had to do with his lack of response for paying for our time to get us to do extended code enforcement. >> is there any additional public comments? >> just in hearing the issue with q-matic, something that came to mind. i have answered a lot of questions about surveys, new things in the housing code, things that we have to implement. seeing the responses from our customers, one thing that may need to be considered, i know that there are mine turns on some floors of the department. one thing that was very effective with the brown bag

lunches for the videos that were done, which were then displayed on a loop, at any time something new occurs. they can say, this is a new program. it will go through a five-minute loop, and you could also do it in different languages. that would help our customers as they are sitting there waiting. commissioner hechanova: [inaudible] >> [inaudible] watching our customers, that is a quick way to introduce -- i would say and do the writing things, too. but if we could give them a visual, that would help them to, as they conduct their business on these various floors. >> any additional public

comment? seeing none. item 7. discussion and possible action regarding a public employee appointment building inspection commission secretary. public comment on all matters pertaining to the closed session. >> ann aherne. i would just like to put forward sonya harris, who was my assistant for 6.5 years -- it seems like a long time. i know in the last couple of years i did not have heard very much. as far as continuity and keeping things going, having some history of what goes on with the commission, it is very important. when i took over, i had no one

to train me. i did not even know there was a aac, boe, code advisory committee, until they came up. i think it is really important to have somebody that understands the department and how it works. thank you. >> is there any additional public comment? >> i am not speaking for the department as a private individual who has been within the department since 1990. i just want to commend sonya. i have to work constantly with the commission secretary office, and i just want to commend her professionalism and her protection of you commissioners, try to get information for you.

as ann said, i do not think you could make a better choice. commissioner hechanova: insulated. >> 7b. possible action to convene a closed session. >> roll call vote. [roll call] we >> this is the building inspection commission. we are now on item 7d.

reconvene in open session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions held in closed session. commissioner walker: move to disclose. >> aye. >> we are now in open session. commissioner hechanova: i am pleased and proud to announce on a unanimous vote the appointment of sonya to be the new bic secretary. sonya, welcome. [applause] this really is another milestone, but more importantly, leads into another legacy of the producing and performing through your mentoring and the category of the challenges that the bic secretary undertakes.

we know that you will do a good job. more importantly, that you will always protect our backs. >> thank you. i would just like to thank the commission for the opportunity to serve. i have the honor of being trained by one of the best in ann aherne. i look forward to carrying her porch and working diligently with the commission. commissioner hechanova: thank you. >>item 8. commissioner's questions and matters. 8a. at this time, commission may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the commission. >> is there any public comments? seeing none.

8b. at this time, the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of the special meeting and to determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the building inspection commission. the next meeting is on september 23, i believe. commissioner murphy: the third wednesday of the month. commissioner hechanova: fall equinox. >> i will be sure to follow up on the item that the commissioners requested earlier in the meeting. public comment on items 8a and b? seeing none. item 9.

review and approval of the minutes of the special meeting of february 3, 2011. commissioner walker: move to approve. >> minutes are approved. all in favor? item 10 is adjournment. commissioner walker: move to adjourn. commissioner hechanova: all in favor? thank you.

>> welcome. i am the senior vice president of human resources and corporate real-estate, and i am really delighted to welcome the honorable edwin lee, mayor of san francisco. we have a number of employees who work here. everybody, welcome. we are delighted that you have come to see our office space, and we also have some good news to announce. with that, i would like to give callback the microphone to share some of that good news. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. thanks so much for being here. i, too, would like to extend my

gratitude to the honorable edwin lee. thanks so much for coming. hopefully, you got a small chance to look around. the gallery was really built for to the we will purposes. one was to showcase the work of the customers, which is the best way [inaudible] secondly, to show off new technology and how you can use it to sell technology challenges. if you look around, you can see interesting things. i just had the experience of bringing my nephews. we eventually printed things out.

that was very exciting. one thing that was particularly exciting was the announcement of our presence in san francisco. it has been a great location for us. we have continually expanded over the last half-dozen years. we love to meet here in the city. this has turned out to be a fantastic place to host and guests. it has been a fantastic place to attract employees, to tap into the creativity and imagination of the city and all the support it provides. we are thrilled to be here, and we will continue to expand our presence here. this morning, we are announcing that we are building another 36,000 square feet of space. this one is in the adjacent our and will be connecting the two buildings. just like they are connected on

the ground floor, this will be connecting the high rise of the building. this will continue our expansion of our presence in san francisco, which has just been incredible. there is nothing like to bring a guest to san francisco and not only being able to show off what the guest does, but to show off the city itself. the combination of using it as a showcase for us as well as a place to expand our employee base is very exciting for us. now, i would like to introduce the honorable edwin lee. [applause] mayor lee: good morning. welcome to the city of innovation, san francisco. we continue to be really strong. i want you to feel comfortable, all of you here. it sounds like every six months

we will be coming back to make another announcement. i was here in march when we talk about the first major expansion, and, of course, i got to have the personal tour from carl and his wonderful staff to see all the different products and all the work has not only trading, but is the part of the way so many other companies are doing business, and we had a chance to talk this morning about all the different hospitals, the medical field, and the seismic retrofit requirements. all of the contractors and major engineering firms are using the very product you see here to be able to model their buildings. clearly, without that modern technology, you cannot see how some of these things can be

sequenced with the great savings that are inherent in using 3-d dimensional looks at the way everything from hdc to architectural drawings actually fit in with all the different skill sets. being your former dpw director [inaudible] [laughter] i told carl in the last four months since we were last year, i brought about three different visitors to san francisco right down here to take a look, and each of them came back. "what a wonderful place. i want to go back to the museum and see this great technology." every six months, there is an exception. want to talk about the great comments. despite what you're hearing about the whole national economy, we are very solid in

the city, and i am so happy because as the mayor of the city, we want to keep that innovation, keep the technology companies welcome in the city. eventually, we are going to sit down for some long hours and say, "how about those headquarters?" 36,000 additional square feet being announced today. that represents an additional 200 employees on top of the 500 employees that are currently here. autodesk has about 7000 employees worldwide, but there are making some very good plans here. there's a reason this is the city of innovation. many of the fantastic employees located here with carl's leadership come here because they want to interact with the best engineering firms, the best architectural firms, with the

entities of building our new villages, if you will, whether it is salesforce or general hospital or chinese hospital, as we go through those negotiations and get that done. these are fantastic buildings, fantastic institutions. it is all going on. they are all using the very modern products, so i am happy to see this. it is all about jobs and employment for us in the city as well. you have seen the other companies attracted to not only what autodesk is doing here, but also choosing to come here. of course, our work with twitter is very helpful. we are still on the move.

we are still very excited about what autodesk is doing and still supporting every effort we can to not only keep employees here but offer opportunities to expand because the product and the innovation has to be working together. the companies come here -- it is not because -- there is a little higher rent that you have to pay, but look at what you get. that is why salesforce has about eight floors here of great work they have. they will eventually -- they already are designing their whole campus in mission bay and using a lot of products here and their clients and customers using a lot of products to do that. i am excited to announce this and suggest to you that it is important, and my number goal is to create jobs and make sure that jobs-creating companies are

here, they stay here. look out -- in six months, they will be right back here. we will make another announcement. hopefully another great contribution. maybe look at the first order -- the first quarter and hope that is as successful as the second quarter. thank you very much. [applause] questions? >> [inaudible] >> 150. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> [inaudible]

>> autodesk is a company that started in the bay area, reached to the d.c. area. started at the same time as companies like microsoft and adobe, so it is a 30-year-old company. it was originally headquartered in sausalito. about 15 years ago, we moved headquarters, and we have always had a small presence in san francisco. there has always been a fringe element to the company. we had a more urban setting that attracted different kinds of talents. a few years ago, we really increased it up to about 500. we were going to increase a

couple hundred more. the interesting thing is that so much of our business is outside of the united states. about 75% of our business is outside of the united states. what we look for is really the place where we can get the best talent. that is generally where we look at ourselves. our big motivations, particularly for research, development, or marketing is where we can find the best people, and we found that in san francisco. >> [inaudible] >> pretty much across the board, but the two main functions we have is software development and luxury. those are the two main developments we have here.

we talked about the culture of innovation and young, smart people. this is a great place to live, a great place to work. active public transportation. this morning, you could see the waves of people ride at the ferry tunnel, so it is really a great infrastructure. very different from my old new jersey. >> by the way, the last 13 candy awards for best visual effects used this product. >> the last 16 -- not only the last 16, but every year, there are five nominees. we have had qualified nominees for 16 years.

you can actually see one of the awards that we have one. there's nothing that we or our employees have not won >> can you do anything to offer any incentives or tax incentives? >> we have our real estate department helping with whatever support they need. of course our department of building inspections to do all the inspections to make sure everything is done in an excellent fashion. we are continuing to offer the technology companies an expedited approach that they don't get caught up in the bureaucracies and we have been doing very well. i know carl would be the first to call up and he hasn't been calling up. >> we have kind of pushed the

limits. next week we are installing machinery in order to showcase the capabilities of the manufacturing technology. we have had to work with the city to get those things approved. even as we change the exhibits, as of yesterday there was one of the things that was in here we brought in a concept car from daimler in there now. and just the idea of we have had to remove the windows and had a crane and working with the city on things like that and it is a big deal and if we didn't get the cooperation it would be much more difficult to do but we have had great cooperation from the city.

>> [inaudible]. >> we talked to the mayor about moving the zones. >> my view is that creation of really high paying jobs all around san francisco would be a good idea. and while i understand why it started it one part of the city, i think creative jobs should been couraged all over the city -- should be encouraged all over the city. carl is many, among many others who are engaging with us to approach how to change the taxes. we are going to be spearheading that and talking about more

options to deal with taxes. that will be probably connected very well to a discussion about headquarters and things of that nature. >> exactly. we have a number of new companies that want to engage us in that discussion and make sure we don't lose revenues but don't continue job punishing legislation. so we are careful not to do that. and both twitter and others are great signs for our city to have moved to indicate that we are business friendly in that respect. i know your schedule is tight and we are planning to give you a quick tour of the work space. all of you are welcome to join. we will be walking to utter -- out that way and we hope

everybody can join us. thanks very much.

>> the next time you take a muni bus or train, there could be new technology that could make it easier to get to your destination. many are taking a position of next bus technology now in use around the city. updated at regular intervals from the comfort of their home or workplace. next bus uses satellite technology and advanced computer modeling to track buses and trains, estimating are bought stocks with a high degree of accuracy. the bus and train our arrival information can be accessed from your computer and even on your cellular phone or personal digital assistant. knowing their arrival time of the bus allows riders the choice of waiting for it or perhaps doing some shopping locally or getting a cup of coffee. it also gives a