reason for having some in the acting positions in the budget as opposed to having full appointments? maybe i am just ignore it on the process, but i hope you might ask ourselves why we are having acting positions. thank you. acting appointments, i should say. >> any additional public comment? seeing none, there is a motion and a second to approve the department's budget. and just wanted to clarify that five votes are needed to pass the budget. i am going to take a roll call vote. commissioner hechanova? >> yes. commissioner mar: yes. commissioner clinch: yes. commissioner lee: yes.

commissioner murphy: yes. commissioner melgar: yes. >> the motion carries unanimously, and the budget is approved. commissioner hechanova: thank you very much, pam, and your crew. >> onto item number 5, directors report. 5a, update on dbi's finances. >> good morning. i am with finance services that the dbi. i wanted to talk about the finance report. i put their revenue chart up on the screen. so our revenue projections are actually quite similar to what we have been talking about in the past. we are continuing to receive more funds than we expected undercharges for services. that is pretty much our main surplus in revenue projection. everything else is coming in fairly close to what we had budgeted for this year.

we do expect it to continue to come in very close to budget. so we are not projecting a surplus, except for in charges for services. we do see increased amounts there. everything else, like i said, is pretty much what we expected. we are seeing less refunds than we had anticipated. we were anticipating getting around $300,000 in refunds, and we're not going to -- at this point, we do not see that we will get that much in refunds. we have lowered that to about $200,000 in refunds. the main difference in the financial report has to do with expenses. if you look at our expenses for this year, we finished about 58% of the year. you can see that in terms of expenses, we have not spent 58%

of our budget. we had been leaving our salaries and fringe s alone and not projecting an increase. as pamela said, we did get approvals this last week, but we are getting fairly late in the year. because it is so late in the year, we are starting to project some savings in salaries and fringe. we're projecting about $1.3 million in savings. hopefully we will be able to get these positions filled. but because we're so far in the year, we will have some savings. we are projecting a little bit of savings in on personal and materials and supplies. a very small percentage of the budget, but we expect to have some savings in that area as well. we are continuing to see more issued permits, both in volume and in the evaluation of permits, which is why we are seeing an increase in charges for services.

but everything else is pretty much what we expect to see this time of year. in terms of the financial report, we are in good shape. commissioner hechanova: commissioners, questions? >> that was an excellent update. >> i have one. on expenses, it is dated 11/30. >> i am sorry, i did not update the date on the report. it is as of the end of january. >> ok. next question would be, based on our lag in hiring, is that possibly going to roll into, if we do not hire them, roll into the next budget period? >> the budget would start over. we would still be anticipating that we would have them hired for the full year. we do have a lag this year.

i would hope and expect that we would have everyone hired before the end of the fiscal year, which is not until the end of june. so it should not roll into next year. we are asking for quite a few new positions. so hopefully we will be able to get those hired faster last year than we did our positions this year. >> great that you mentioned the word fiscal. as you mentioned it late in the year, being february only, that relative to that is our fiscal year, which is at the end of -- >> in june. so our fiscal year begins july 1. commissioner hechanova: so we're almost running close to the ninth month that you referred to as late in the year? >> we are in the eighth month, so yes. commissioner hechanova: thank you. additional questions? thank you very much. >> thank you. >> item number 5b, update on proposed legislation.

>> good morning. bill with legislative and public affairs. i have included in your packet a kind of overview update of legislation that we are monitoring and keeping our eyes on. such as the new public arts trust fund. supervisor chu recently amended that legislation to make sure it is going to cover any dbi administrative expenses that may be involved in the collection of those fees. he has a further more substantial amendment on increasing the arts district outside of the c-3 downtown district, as you know, to 75,000 square feet or more. that has yet to be acted upon. we're still waiting on that to come out of committee and go to the full board. the small business commission did meet on monday evening and voted 5-1 to recommend going forward with supervisor chiu's

legislation on making sure that commercial landlords leasing to small businesses, make sure of accessibility requirements and complaints being made. that is moving forward. i think it will be back at land use probably sometime this month and then go to the full board. the only other thing that i would mention is this proposed update of what is called the maher toxic ordinance that the department of public health and planning their pushing through. i was told by planning earlier this week that the city attorney is in the process of making provisions on the draft legislation. we have yet to see a modified version. eventually that could affect when people can have a permit release from dbi, because they would have to meet certain dph

standards in terms of toxicity in groundwater and soil. we're watching that just in terms of whether it slows down our ability to issue permits. the one in new items that i have added that the deputy director's suggestion this time as we're beginning to also pay attention to state legislation that might affect the building code here locally. i listed seven or eight pieces of these. we're in touch with the california building officials, a track is that the state level, as well as with the mayor's office and its legislative personnel so that we stay on top of this. as we have more detail, i will make sure you are aware of it. that is about it for right now. commissioner lee: i have several questions. regarding the ordinance regarding disabled access, ada

access, high interest and our department is trying to get an inspector certified as an access specialist. are they going to be playing a part in anything that is being proposed in the legislation? >> well, i do not know that they would specifically be involved. i know that a number of our professors are in the process of taking that training. overall, what will happen is this legislation will expedite dbi's review of those types of compliance steps that property owners would be taking. commissioner lee: ok, maybe later on this year we can review what we can do to help move things even further along. commissioner hechanova: thank wtp&e%ei on state legislation, the seismic safety finance act, does that have a correlation also to the senate bill 301, where it

authorizes the housing committee development seismic retrofit? >> i think there are two separate pieces of legislation. but as i said, i am not been given additional detail at this time. >> but fundamentally, they have the same objective of seismic retrofits that would be beneficial to homeowners, and also in the commercial category? >> i think the focus is on residential. >> residential. terrific. on the senate. 301, is there an association -- on senate bill 301, is there an association on our capps program, or can it benefit? >> as is usually the case was san francisco and seismic issues, we are ahead of the rest of the state. hours are usually more restrictive. >> great. there was also a comment with regard to homeland security and

some of the funding we can possibly secure from that? >> as i understand it, we are in the process of participating in another round of homeless security grants where we are applying. last year, we applied for a number of funds to pay for mobile field devices so that our assessor's doing a rapid assessment following an earthquake or another major emergency could use realtime data and enteric from the kind of a smart phone-like device, directly from the field. we were not selected in it that round last year. but as i understand, the way the department of emergency management is now dealing with these kinds of grant applications is we will be reconsidered. we might have to add updates, and we are in the process of doing that right now. but we're going to make another attempt to obtain those devices. commissioner hechanova: disaster

responsiveness could easily be transformed to something catastrophic, if not also a category where inspectors on the field and/or some unforeseen measure to allow for our field inspectors and/or responsiveness on field units to bring that data closer to being higher performing. >> exactly. more immediate response. commissioner hechanova: the last one i would like to ask is on the california foreclosure law. that is senate bill 1137. given that it is going to expire in 2013. and in urge the balance of the commissioners that will carry the torch for word to really pay attention in the sense that the

foreclosure law that has really impacted our citizens here need to really have the higher level of service by virtue of how the foreclosure law has really impacted to some unfortunate situations on the financing end. >> right, this apparently has been law since 2008, and it is about to sunset, which is why they are beginning to talk about extending yet or renewing the legislative authorization on it. i know director day received a letter about this. that is one of the reasons that we put it on this. and i have been in touch with calbo and am awaiting their response. but the expectation is that they will want to renew and extend the legislation. commissioner hechanova: thank you. >> item 5c, update on permit

tracking system. >> hello, i am penny from dbi, an update on the permit and project tracking system. we are currently in the analysis stage. the milestone for that is this month. we are on schedule for that. we are having meetings a couple times a day, three hours each. dbi planning, the vendor, al- zeidi apartments, getting a lot of good input on how we should configure the system to meet our requirements and improve the process flows. we also started enterprise analysis sessions, looking at the big pictureñr in terms of processes that handoffs between

planning and dbi. what is the most efficient way to handle these, and how should we configure the system to support this? we also started some system prototype development where the documentation that is being done out of the analysis sessions are being prototyped by the vendor, and they demonstrate some options for us in terms of how they can configure the system, how they have done it for other agencies, recommendations that they have to support our process flows. we are also continuing to document the configuration, a very detailed documents that identified the work flows, screen flows, validation of the data, and starting to document report processes. our next steps.

we are completing our configuration analysis sessions this month. we will complete our enterprise configuration analysis sections next month. complete the system prototype development next month. continued the configuration analysis of documentation, which is due in april. we're starting our historical data analysis in terms of what the source of the current data is, how we can convert it to the new system. and we're forming a subcommittee to provide input and to excel citizen access. we have a group of volunteers, and we will work with them and the vendor to get ideas. commissioner hechanova: commissioners, and the questions? i have got a couple. will -- where you will continue the configuration analysis document reviews and approvals,

will there be a presentation on that soon or coordination with staff, some sort of bringing along the public's eye in a sort of parallel world of bringing them along? >> every month, we give them an update as to where we're at, answer their questions, and the focus with the subcommittee would be the citizen access portal. the documentation, the configuration we're doing right now, is more for the internal staff. but we do give them a high level update on status. anything else? commissioner hechanova: thank you. commissioner murphy: we're still right on track? >> yes. commissioner murphy: what is the deadline again? >> september 2013 to go live. yes. commissioner hechanova: thank you. public comment?

>> item number -- we can wait probably until the end. is that ok? thank you. item fived, update on major projects. >> good morning. my name is tom. i want to tell you that in the last few months, we have a lot of high-profile project coming in. there is the cruise terminal, tjpa, and others. but we have additional quotas coming in. like 140 new montgomery for the old at&t building, the high rise building to be retrofitted. and then 1190 golden gate.

of course, everybody here -- heard from the news about salesforce. the area is the headquarters, about two million square feet, housing about 10,000 employees. and then that they want to review the project in 2015. besides, they will not have something else to come in to discuss even more. and the washington has another project coming in, a base isolation building. 201 folsom is a 40-story building. 55 5th street, a school. i think it was mentioned before. and the memorial building with the seismic retrofit also. with this amount of projects, on

the pipeline, it is about $180,000 -- we estimate another 100 million again. i have to say that i appreciate the director for listening to me and giving me more staff. to answer commissioner mar's question regarding trying to get the retiree -- because when we get the staff in, we usually have six months to a year to train them to fully utilize them. director day agrees. maybe we want to hire the urgent one. there was the retirement of jeff.

is very knowledgeable. right now, we have three. ron, rudy, and david. also, hansen. you know, everybody trying to help with whatever he did before. that is why these steps thing is important. we need to look ahead. also, we want to streamline the process. as you see nowadays, we have lots of training coming up. we usually do it in-house. i am trying to reduce the service, because any construction goes up first, before the foundation or anything. that is why all my work on the fifth floor is not myself. it is the whole team working,

and the engineer, and specter, and the clerk, to help get it done. hopefully we can good, achieve 90% of the permit. and do that in-house. then the major job will be headed by hansen and tom for detail. commissioner murphy: tom, you are far too modest. how many of these projects that you mentioned are already out of planning? >> ok, some of them, like 10 market street, $200 million. they stopped. and then go. now they are going ahead with the foundation. but still, we have had in them

clauses for the structure and the architecture under review. and then, also, 2 rincon hill is coming up, and those are approved by planning. we're lucky enough to have planning ok, and then we will be able to. there is lansing, 45 lansing. stopped and now going back again. commissioner murphy: so for some of these companies like salesforce, they're staying within their envelope of some of these buildings? >> right now, i heard salesforce as a special agent to review it right now. they dismantled the agency. but we have a meeting with

development and with everybody. we say we are going to help them move the process in parallel with development at that time. commissioner murphy: i just wanted to congratulate you, tom. you have done a great job to get that fifth store to where it is today. i remember when you first started out, you're taking a shopping basket from the second floor to the fifth floor. you had all your stamps in there. so you have built a good structure around you. i hope that you succeed and get all the staffing you need. >> yes, i promise you i will do the same thing. my staff will do the same thing. and we will be working together to get the permit process going smoother and streamlined. because, you know, not only do you get promoted. you think your high up.

i work with them only. commissioner hechanova: questions? one of my concerns with all of these major projects, especially the high rises, or the scale and the fire review and sprinklers, along with elevators, are we getting the adequate personnel that are going to pay close attention to these categories? because life safety issues have all been paramount on any category of major project. >> ok, we're always safety number one. we always review safety. we do not give up the code. however, people push you to take the job out. but we do have sufficient staff. that is why we want to also get

back the retiree as part time. money is not the concern. we tried to talk to him. he agreed a little bit to come back as part time. once you go out the door, you do not want to go back to full time now. we're always working with the fire department to go through each item. and to make sure all the high rise buildings comply with the latest codes. in some projects, we go through a peer review process. commissioner hechanova: thank you. i just wanted to make clear that we do our job, or within the department, the category of other departments that could impact the continuity of the review, especially like fire, that they're all so inadequately staffed such that it helps to provide the veteran hire service

to the department. >> actually, fire is more up-to- date than the speed of the have two to three on board already. commissioner hechanova: fabulous. thank you. >> one other question. saying that it takes so long to bring somebody on. somebody mentioned it 10 months to get somebody into a position. i really agree with commissioner mar on may be bringing some of these experienced people back that have retired. it could be immediate. i have no idea what the process is. but i would really like to see that. >> yes, i will talk to the director to try to boost that issue. commissioner hechanova: additional questions, comments? thank you. >> thank you. >> item number 5e, an update on

q-matic and status of activation. >> on the status of q-matic and status of activation, we have met with the various unions. we have met and conferred. we are looking at possibly to activate it by mid-march. the only thing that is different as a little bit more training to our staff, and we are allowing tom time to review and make any necessary tweaks or changes that he wants, being he will be running the program. but we're hoping that sometime in mid to late-march that q- matic is up and running. commissioner hechanova: questions, commissioners? thank you. it is gratifying to hear that it is moving forward to be tested by the public and also being implemented by tom, who has been very successful with the

fifth floor and permit services. thank you. >> ok, i them 5f, update on other technology projects. >> pamela, building inspections. very quickly, what we wanted to let you know is that we began this week doing limited testing on the online web for services for 3r requests. we are continuing to work with the department of of technologyr consolidation of our server rooms force human services agencies and planning at 660 mission. we continue to work through the issues with an engineer to ensure that the generator is sufficient. we do know that we have to and have started working with the