>> here we are at the

embarcadero. we are standing at one of locations for the street artists. can you tell me about this particular location, the program? >> this location is very significant. this was the very first and only location granted by the board of supervisors for the street artist when the program began in 1972. how does a person become a street artist? there are two major tenants. you must make the work yourself and you must sell the work yourself. a street artist, the license, then submitting the work to a committee of artists. this committee actually watches them make the work in front of them so that we can verify that it is all their own work. >> what happened during the

holiday to make this an exciting location? >> this would be a magic time of year. you would probably see this place is jammed with street artists. as the no, there is a lottery held at 6 in the morning. that is how sought after the spaces are. you might get as many as 150 street artists to show up for 50 spaces. >> what other areas can a licensed street artist go to? >> they can go to the fisherman's wharf area. they can go in and around union square. we have space is now up in the castro, in fact. >> how many are there? >> we have about 420. >> are they here all year round? >> out of the 420, i know 150 to sell all year round. i mean like five-seven days a week.

>> are they making their living of of this? >> this is their sole source of income for many. >> how long have you been with this program. how much has it changed? >> i have been with the program since it began 37 and a half years ago but i have seen changes in the trend. fashion comes and goes. >> i think that you can still find plenty of titis perhaps. >> this is because the 60's is retro for a lot of people. i have seen that come back, yes. >> people still think of this city as the birth of that movement. great, thank you for talking about the background of the program. i'm excited to go shopping.

>> i would like you to meet two street artists. this is linda and jeremy. >> night said to me to print them -- nice to meet you. >> can you talk to me about a variety of products that use cell? >> we have these lovely constructed platters. we make these wonderful powder bowls. they can have a lot of color. >> york also using your license. -- you are also using your license. >> this means that i can register with the city. this makes sure that our family participated in making all of these. >> this comes by licensed

artists. the person selling it is the person that made it. there is nothing better than the people that made it. >> i would like you to meet michael johnson. he has been in the program for over 8 years. >> nice to me you. what inspired your photography? >> i am inspired everything that i see. the greatest thing about being a photographer is being able to show other people what i see. i have mostly worked in cuba and work that i shot here in san francisco. >> what is it about being a street artist that you particularly like? >> i liked it to the first day

that i did it. i like talking to mentum people. talking about art or anything that comes to our minds. there is more visibility than i would see in any store front. this would cost us relatively very little. >> i am so happy to meet you. i wish you all of the best. >> you are the wonderful artist that makes these color coding. >> nice to me to. >> i have been a street artist since 1976. >> how did you decide to be a street artist? >> i was working on union square. on lunch hours, i would be there visiting the artist. it was interesting, exciting, and i have a creative streak in me.

it ranges from t-shirts, jackets, hats. what is the day of the life of a street artist? >> they have their 2536 in the morning. by the end of the day, the last people to pack the vehicle probably get on their own at 7:30 at night. >> nice to me to condemn the -- nice to meet you. >> it was a pleasure to share this with you. i hope that the bay area will descend upon the plaza and go through these arts and crafts and by some holiday gifts. >> that would be amazing. thank you so much for the hard work that you do.

>> good evening. welcome to the meeting of the board of appeals. the board president is kendall goh. to my left is the deputy city attorney. she will provide the board with any legal advice. i am the board executive director. in the front row we are joined by representatives from some of the city departments you will be hearing from this evening. the senior planner and assistant to the zoning administrator. next is the building

inspector. he is joined by the acting chief inspector tony greco. mr. pinelli will not be here. there is one housekeeping item. president goh has canceled next week's meeting. the next meeting is september 14, 2011. at this time, if you could please go over the meeting guidelines and conduct the swearing-in process. >> the board requests you turn off all phones and pagers so there will not disturb the proceedings. please carry on conversations in the hallway. the board's rules of presentations are as follows. permit holders and part representatives each have seven minutes to present their cases and three minutes for a bottle. -- rebuttal. members of the public who are

not affiliated with the party have up to three minutes each to address the board and over a bottle. to assist the board in the accurate preparation of minutes, members who wish to speak on an item on the board's agenda are asked but not required to submit a speaker card or business card to board staff when you come up to speak at the podium. speaker cards and pans are available on the left side of the podium. the board also welcomes your comments and suggestions. there are customer satisfaction survey forms on the left side of the podium as well. if you have questions about requesting rehearing, or rules, or hearing schedules, please speak to staff during the break or after the meeting or call the office tomorrow. it is located between vani.n.s. avenue and -- van ness avenue.

thank you for your attention. we will conduct the swearing-in process. if you intend to testify in any of tonight's hearings and wish to have the board give your testimony evidentiary weight, please stand and raise your right hand and say i do after you have been sworn in or for. please note any member of the public may speak without taking a know pursuant to the rights under the sunshine ordinance. thank you. >>do you solemnly swear or affim the testimony will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? thank you. >> thank you. calling item one, public comment. is there any member of the public who would like to speak on an item that is not on to its calendar? seeing none, we will move to

item no. 2. commissioners? item three. the adoption of minutes. the board meeting minutes of august 10, 2011. >> i will move the adoption. >> is there any public comment on the minutes? please call the roll. >> on that motion from the president, to adopt the august 10 minutes, commissioner fung. >> aye. >> commissioner garcia. >> aye. >> commissioner hwang, aye. commissioner peterson. >> aye. >> next item. appealing the imposition of penalty on may 12, 2011 for construction work done without a permit -- a permit.

public hearing was held on june 29, 2011. the matter was continued to allow the president to participate in the final vote. at the last hearing, commissioner fung reduce the penalty from nine times to five times the permit fee based on the fact the fee was -- the work was minor. dbi expended significant forces -- resources to amend the manner. president goh, you have indicated you would like to move back into deliberations, is that correct? >> [gavel] >> president chiu: good afternoon, welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting f[gavel] >> i would also support a motion to reduce to five times based on

the fact that the work was minor and the appellant might have believed it was abated. the department having expended energy to investigate the issue, this is why i would not support it. do you want to renew your motion? >> reduce the penalty to five times. >> based on the reasons stated previously? [gavel] president goh: yes. >> we have a motion to reduce the fee. on the basis that the work was minor and the appellant might have believed the penalty had been abated. is that correct? >> also the dbi had expended

significant resources. >> on the motion, president goh. president goh: aye. cthe appeal is granted and the penalty is reduced to five times the regular. >> thank you. we will move on to item 5. appeal no. 11-084. the subject property is at 536 golden gate ave. appealing the imposition of penalty on june 1, 2011. plumbing work done without a permit. application pp 2011/06/01/556. we will start with the appellant.

>> the evening. -- good evening. i am leaving the space unoccupied. upon taking possession of the space last year, we did minor remodeling including painting, a changing lighting fixtures and so on. included in the scope of the work was limited amount of plumbing work that needed to be changed out. we repositioned a water heater and subsequently had to rework some gas lines and while we were in the basement we noticed a couple of the pipes were arrested. pipes that connected to our bathroom -- to the toilet and such. i enlisted the help of some family members that have some handyman experience. i did not feel the need to get a

licensed plumber. i wanted to save some money and have the work done by some family members. the work was done. unknowingly, i did not realize i needed to obtain a permit to do the work. the work was done -- performed and completed in june of last year. a few months later, my landlord had to hire a licensed plumber to replace a bunch of sewage lines and when the plumbing inspector came in to sign off on that work, noticed some additional work was done. and we proceeded to get cited for the work we havperformed a few months prior. to make a long story short, after receiving the citation, we took the necessary steps and came to the dbi and applied for the permits and pay the penalties. we took the corrective measures to get the work done by a

licensed plumber. we have a final inspection and passed the inspection. i am here today in hopes of appealing the penalty which comes out to $2,799. hoping that i can get that fee reduced to the maximum amount of reduction based on the fact that i did not know any better. we are a small business owner. i thought i was doing minor corrective work. upon knowing of our mistake we took care bed and applied for the necessary permits and i would like to basically say that it is in the past and we have taken care of it. that is it. >> you mentioned the fact that your landlord -- you're the owner of this property. >> i am leaving the space. the landlord is somebody else. i am leaving wilrestaurant space

within the building. >> you are the landlord. >> i am not the landlord. i am leaving the space. -- leasing the space. >> for myfor my landlord. >> i am confused. >> me and my father are leasing a restaurant space at 536 golden gate. we are leasing from an llc. we are not the landlords. >> or the honor? >> we're not the owner. >> why does it siccone owner -- tollneco-owner. >> you mentioned you hired a licensed plumber. what did that person do? did they have to redo some of the work? >> when we were cited, it was

noted that some of the work was done incorrectly. we had to hire a licensed plumber to take the corrective measures and do the work properly. to install some pipes properly. >> what was the problem with the pipes you had done? >> we attach them without proper -- attached to them without proper ventilation. i do not know the exact procedure. the citation mentioned there was improper ventilation and there was some traps that were done improperly. >> you are the one who had to pay the penalty, not the honor? >> correct. ok. i will ask mr. duthie about that. >> thank you. -- i will ask mr. duffy about that. >> thank you. >> good evening. i spoke earlier with the chief

putting -- plumbing inspector. he wants to keep the penalty at nine times. some of the reasons are -- this was filled observation which -- failed observation. they saw during inspection of a building, sinks without traps, toward the front, plumbing supplies were thrown and new gas and water pipes were installed without permit. and there was no access to the restaurant upstairs. on august 19, 2010, the first notice of violation was issued. and on december 13, 2010, the

second notice was sent. and on december 16, 2010, a final warning was sen. on december 29, 2010, we referred it to code enforcement as there had been no response from the person who got the notice of violation. it was received by code enforcement and it went to a director's hearing. the case did get continued. and that was in may 2011. in june 2011 it was a plumbing permit. the proper inspections were given and the case has been debated. -- abated. the penalties i believe are

[unintelligible] >whoever applies for the plumbing permit, that penalty would be assessed. that was probably a licensed plumber. this was done in the restaurant. all this worked -- the plumbing permits could be at -- obtained by a licensed plumber. it could not be obtained by the lessee or the homeowner. any kind of pervert -- permit like this. >> the licensed plumber is the one who pays a fine? >> they could pass that on to whoever they are doing the work for. which is pretty normal. he could pass these on to the client. >> what specifically factors

into the decision by your department to ask for the full nine times penalty? >> mr. pinelli stated that it is work in the restaurant. it was a significant amount of work. they did not know they needed a permit. if you are doing this type of work in your own home, you would need a plumbing permit. you need a permit for this type of work. it is -- it did take them quite a few months to get to -- in touch with us. there was a first and second notice of violation, a final warning letter. someone was on notice we were trying to get a plumbing permit to take care of the problem and it seemed to be ignored by whoever got the violation. it would have been quite a bit of staff time as well. serving and posting these notices.

>> thank you. >> mr. duffy, to clarify a couple of points. the notice went to the lessee. this gentleman. >> i am assuming that it did. it would have been on the address. i am not sure who it got handed to. >> is it a mailing or posting? >> i assume it was given whenever the inspector was there. he probably wrote it and gave it to whoever was there. >> there was a posting, wasn't there? >> we post when it gets to code enforcement. we do not always post notices of violation on the front of the property. if there is someone there to get it, we give it to them. we did post for hearings and something like that. that is part of code enforcement. >> is the -- when you say it is

a significant amount of work, it is contrary to what the palin said. when he was doing a little bit of repair work. >> i am reading of the inspectors notes of what he saw. it seemed to be supplies, floor drains and tpipes without traps. >> was that related to the other permit? >> the violation was in august. it could have been. possibly. that would be a question for the other party. >> are you finished? could you talk about abs plumbing, that is prohibited in the city of san francisco? >> that is a plastic pipe.

we would be using cast-iron four lat. -- for that. ford drains. -- for drains. >> drain pipes and stuff like that. abs would not be the proper type of piping to use per code in san francisco. >> that traps and the things you mentioned, those are things that i licensed plumbing contractor would note to install their. >> that is right. the proper way to do this is to get your plumbing permit and get a licensed plumber and do the work. you are not going to get a plumbing permit off our department to do the work unless it is a licensed plumber that gets the permit. >> if you were a homeowner doing some small repair work, you could pull permit yourself. >> for certain types of plumbing work.