>> he has a way about him that brings people in and seeks to involve the people of san francisco. that is what we need. the polarization and san francisco does not benefit the people we are about to help. they need compassion, support, and they need us to work together to build a system o and employment and drug treatment and family building and all of those services that will enable us not to pay so much money on the back end. what you are doing is spectacular. i am humbled to be with you. i am excited the mayor has

me this opportunity to work with great people to do this work. believe me, the best is yet to comment. thank you so much. [applause] >> this is only his third day on the job. thank you for coming out. it is exciting to live in a cityç really believe in changig chrysostom of care with homelessness. -- changing the system of care with homelessness. we admire and respect and are so excited to have them here. it makes our day when we start the day with them. thank you, mayor lee. [applause] >> good morning, everyone.

she wanted to introduce people who are above her. we are never above her, we are with her. [applause] anytime we can have a thousand volunteers and over 300 providers to help us withç helping others who need our help, that is what san francisco is about. yesterday, were you there at city hall? how many people were there at city hall to celebrate 50 years of tony bennett? you saw it on the news. you've heard about him being there. we gave them the proclamation, the key to the city. what i was thinking about all day long was how wonderful our city is. the fact that tony bennett has sung about our city, and i just

kept thinking, why do we do this? why did you come out so much? you'll love this city as much as i do. çpeople of all levels, whether you are working for a great institution or you are working with a different company or you were just a volunteer and someone who cares about somebody else, you do what you can. when we can organize and city government to provide that to opportunity, and whether it is a haircut, how can we provide training, how can we get you some eyeglasses, how can we set you up on e-mail -- q different parts of life we live normally may not be available to

everybody, but you are here to make that available. when i think about the otani bennett is singing to, i think about you. -- when i think about who tony bennett is singing to, i think about you. it is a city of people to know how to do things for other people. that is what makes me so proud to be the mayor of this city. i am willing to sacrifice everything there is to do what is good for the city. i do not care about the politics so much as i care that we can bring more people together under this big tent we call the city of san francisco. triple the effort to help so many other people change their lives, and if we can have a moment and their lives to suggest there is a way out, venues in which we care for them, it isç represented in the way you do things today.

çthe way you talk to people. the way you communicate.ç i love these efforts come at these efforts for we can demonstrate all the humanity we have. people watch us and they think about san francisco and they think that is the place -- you can get lonely in manhattan. when you come to san francisco, it is not law only. bottom of my heart. thank you for coming out and sharing with us your skill sets as we go and do what we're supposed to do to solve the chronic and long-term needs. we enjoy these moments where so many of you as sure your resources, your time, your character and personality. congratulations, thank you to çthe 43rd homeless can act.

thank you for being here. -- connect. thank you for being here. >> we have never given the mayor a t-shirt. i think to date is the day. [applause] they are one of us, right? [applause] i want to close today by thanking -- you see if the people up here, but there are hundreds of people getting things set up. have a wonderful day. we also have a very new committee that will be here today. çthey will be walking around to make sure that you, the volunteers, had everything indeed. if you need something&j, let us know. ok? have a wonderful day. [applause]

>> welcome to the february 15 meeting of the board of appeals. presiding officer is president michael garcia enjoining him as commissioner fung and commissioner hillis. commissioner hwang will be absent this evening. we do have one vacancy. the board may hold a meeting if there's a vacancy. the board may overrule the action of the department with the votes of three members. we're joined tonight by the deputy city attorney. she is sitting to my left and

will provide the board with any legal advice. we also have our legal assistant. we're joined by representatives from the city departments that had cases before the board this evening. we have this in your building inspector representing the department of building inspection and we have the representation for a taxi services. we will conduct the swearing-in process. >> the board requests you turn off all phones and pagers so they will not disturb proceedings. carry on conversations in the hallway. the rules of presentation are as follows, permit holders and department representatives each have seven minutes to present their cases and three minutes for rebuttals. people affiliated with these parties must include their comments with and those periods. members of the public not

affiliated with the parties have up to two minutes each to address the board and no rebuttals. to assist the board in the accurate preparation of minutes, members of the public who wish to speak are asked but not required to submit a speaker card or business card to staff when you speak at the podium. speaker cards and pens are available on the left side of the podium. there are customer satisfaction survey forms on the left side of the podium as well. if you have questions or are requesting a rehearing or hearing schedules, speak to staff during a break or after the meeting or call the board office tomorrow morning. the offices located at 1650 mission st., room 304. this meeting is broadcast live on san francisco government television. cable channel 78. dvd's of the meeting are available directly from sfgtv.

thank you for your attention. we will conduct are swearing-in progress. -- process. if you intend to testify and wish to of the board figured tested fair in -- testimony evidentiary weight, "i do" after you have been affirmed. any member of the public may speak without taking this oath pursuant to the rights under the sunshine ordinance in the administrative code. thank you. please stand. anyone who is going to come up, if you wish. do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? thank you. >> thank you. president, commissioners, we have two housekeeping items. item five has to do we all -- has to deal with appeal number

11-150. it has been withdrawn and will not be heard. item number 6, appeal number 11-099 has to do with a permit suspension by dbi. the attorney for the appellant is here this evening to request a continuance to may 23, 2010. it will allow time for the appellant and her neighbor to participate in arbitration. dbi has indicated its consent to this continuance. if the board is in agreement, the motion can be continued. >> did you wish to address this before we made a motion? >> no, your honor. i am used to addressing judges. that is correct. we would like the continuance to may 23. we have not completed the arbitration yet. we are almost there. we're in the breeding stage of arbitration. continuing thisç -- we are in

the early stage of arbitration. president garcia: thank you. çwe are glad the parties are trying to work it out amongst themselves. i move we continue this to may 23. >> ok. is there public comment? >> good evening. i am the attorney for james, the owner of the adjacent property affected. i concur on the request on his behalf. president garcia: thank you, sir. >> do you have a card as well? >> no, i don't. >> we have a motion to rescheduled to may 23. on that motion -- commissioner fung: aye. commissioner hillis: aye.

>> they do. the vote is 3-0. this is rescheduled to may 23. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. we will move on to item number four, the adoption of findings. this has to do with the p.o. number 07-209. i don't know where my head is. let's start with public comment, item number one. is there any member of the public would like to speak on an item that is not on the calendar? ok. item two, and the comments or questions, commissioners? >> i have a two-hour speech. i am sorry. >> seeing no comments or questions, we will move to item 3, the adoption of minutes. before you for discussion and possible adoption are the minutes of the board meeting on february 8, 2012.

president garcia: i would move that we adopt the minutes as written. >> is there any public comment on the minutes? if you could call the roll, please? >> on that motion from president garcia to adopt the minutes -- commissioner fung: aye. commissioner hillis: aye. >> thank you. the vote is 3-0. the minister adopted. >> now we move to item four. the adoption of findings in appeal number 07-209, martinovsky vs. taxi commission. on december 14, 2011, the board voted a 3-0-2 to uphold the removal of gary martinovsky

from the taxi medallion waiting list. >> i have read the material. >> we can proceed. mr. murray is here from the mta and has indicated that he is in agreement with the findings as written. mr. martinovsky has not participated in the findings review process. he has been given the opportunity. he has not given us comment. commissioners come if you have questions about the findings or if you have a motion? commissioner fung: i have a general question for mr. murray. çhas there been any further actions by your board related to ada processes? >> no, there have not. commissioner fung: thank you. commissioner hillis: just one question. the time period between the

filing of the appeal in 2008 and being rescheduled until 2011, that was to let it go through the legal process and the lawsuit to be -- >> that is right. the appellate was not a party to the lawsuit. because he believed he had issues related to the subject matter of that litigation, he and the department had asked that the matter be put on hold. commissioner hillis: thank-you. >> i should ask if there is any public comment on this item. ok. commissioners? commissioner fung: move the adoption of the findings. >> ok. if you could call the roll, please? >> did you want to comment on how well they were written? commissioner fung: they were extremely well done. >> we have a motion to adopt the

findings. on the motion -- president garcia: aye. commissioner hillis: aye. >> thank you. the vote is 3-0. those findings are adopted. >> ok, commissioners. we have already and all items five and six. we move to item seven, adoption of budget. we are here to discuss and possibly adopt the department of budget for fiscal years 2012- 2013 and fiscal years 2013-2014. bringing the budget proposal to you this evening because the city's administrative code requires that all departments submit their budget no later than february 21 to the mayor and the controller. this year, for the first time, we will be submitting proposals for two budget years under proposition a. all departments now are required to participate in a two-year

rolling budget cycle. my aim this evening is to give you an overview of the structure, provide you with an update on this year's budget status, and then go over my recommendations for how we should approach theç next two budget years. looking at the structure starting with the revenue, we have two revenue streams. the largest one representing 95% of the budget, is comprised of surcharges that are placed on the fees paid by people who are applying for new permits or renewing permits. they're collected by departments that issue those permits and that have matters that our appealable to the board. they are reviewed annually to make sure that they will satisfy our need for revenue to cover our operating expenses and also to make sure that each departments' share of our costs is proportionate to the amount of work that we're doing related to the permits the issue. dbi permits represent 60% of the

board's workload, then the surcharge is placed on dbi permits should generate 60% of our revenues from surcharges. the law does allow the controller to increase the surcharges each year by applying the rate of inflation. if a larger increase is required in order to allow us to cover operating expenses, then we need to go through the legislative process. the of the revenue stream that we have comes from filings. that is comprised of the fees people pay when they come into our office to file for a new appeal. on the expense side, i wanted to give you a brief breakdown of where our money goes. 2/3 goes to cover personal expenses, salaries, and fringe benefits. about 1/4 pace for the services of other departments. that is primarily the attorney's office as well as the department

of technology, which provides for the broadcasting and web hosting and closed captioning of our board meetings, as well as providing the department some support for our computer systems and phones. about 4% of our budget goes toward infrastructure costs, like our rent. 3% toward the contract we have with outside vendors for the neighborhood notification labels that are generated, our courier services, interpreters who come to the board to help members of the public who have limited english speaking ability. the remaining 2% pace for materials and supplies. our postage and office papers, things like that. this year, we are experiencing another in a series of years of revenue shortfalls. very much aligned with the economic situation in the country. while, of course, it is never good news, it is smaller than in years past.

i am optimistic about it. in 2009, we saw a year-and 16% revenue shortfall, 2010, 9%. last year, it was 6%. if we continue as projected, we will have a 3% shortfall by the end of this year. it is getting more manageable. i think we will end the year with about $27,000 short of revenue. i do think we will be able to cover that with reductions in our expenses. our budget should come in with a significant amount of money left over at the end of the year, largely associated with the city attorney work order. so far, we have only spent -- the first half of the year, 14% of that allocation. i suspect that trend will continue to some degree throughout rest of the year. the other work orders, the tv work order, we should also see some savings because those charges are largely associated with how frequently and how long our board meetings are.

if we have shorter board meetings, which we have had throughout this year, we are not paying for as many hours of sfgtv's wonderful services. we don't need to pay for as many hours of it. other expenses also, we will see reductions because of lower appeal volume. some of the costs associated with getting those neighborhood notification labels and other materials and supplies go down when the appeal volume goes down. we will also see small savings in personnel costs largely because we have one member on our staff who is out on leave and will be out for half of this fiscal year. so, i think we will have a surplus at the end of thexd yea, but i don't -- even if our expectations about expenses and our projections about revenue are dramatically off, which i don't think they are, the mayor's office has indicated that they would provide a general fund allocation if we end the year with any kind of a deficit.

moving on to next fiscal year, for 2012-2013, looking at expenses first. it is a bit challenging at this moment to predict what the operating expenses will be next year. it is largely because of the fact that their labor negotiations going on right now, and those negotiations cover all of the union's that are affecting the employees in our department. with salaries being a large portion of the board's operating expenses, we need to see what the outcome is of those negotiations to really know what those expenses are going to be for the coming year. there is some preliminary data that suggests there'll be an increase of approximately $27,000 in those line items, about 19,000 of that having to do with salary, largely associated with the expected removal of the furlough program that has been helping the city save money the last couple of years. another $8,700 in increases in fringe benefits associated with

increases in retirement and health services costs. again, these numbers are likely to keep moving over the next couple of months. we will likely also experience an increase in technology- related costs. looking at the department of technology work order, most of what that funds is labor. we are paying for the services of individuals who are either helping with the broadcast of our meetings or helping with the support of our computers and things like that. when labor costs go up, that work order increases also. we expect that will go up. the board will need to enter into a contract for support and maintenance of its new data base. it has been developed by the department of technology, but they are not in a position to support it. we will need additional funding for that work. i am in discussions with the city's committee on information technology to see if they can provide us with financial supportç so we do not have to supportç so we do not have to assure all that.