of positions and representative positions, we were successful this last week in getting 15 requisitions through the mayor's office under the department of human resources. now the trick is going to be being able to actually being able to bring somebody on board through the recruitment process, including the eight clerks who have testing requirements. so we're doing everything we can dehere to make sure that we're being responsible in terms of what we're proposing in the budget, that we are being responsible to our customers in providing services and working with others in the city family to try to keep our department moving along. the other change that we are making, we had a vehicle that

was involved in a hit and run on city property. since we have gotten approval to replace vehicles and this of the gulf, the cost to fix it was roughly 50%, the cost to get a new one, and it is an old vehicle, we have gotten approval to add another vehicle. due to additional information we have gotten on with the actual cost of the vehicles would become a we have a benefit that within our budget that we have for the vehicles. and i guess the last point i would like to make this that, you know, the budget gets submitted to the mayor's office next week. and then we have a long period of time where it moves through the mayor's process, and there are a lot of things that could occur during that time.

french rates could change. salary rates could change based on the fact that we have 27 mou's, agreements with the unions, up for negotiation, including some of the large ones. so we will see some up and down as we go through the process. and we will report back to you when we can. commissioner hechanova: thank you, pam. commissioners, questions? >> the issue i had at the last commission meeting was stopping for certain services. since then, the president set down with the director, and she assured us of the necessary funding. and for the fifth floor, the over-the-counter. she assured us that tom, who

will run the department, will be adequately staffed. i just wanted to say that for the record. commissioner hechanova: commissioners, additional questions, comments? >> no, i do not have a question -- actually, i do not want to start by saying, thanks, pam, for clarifying the new staff persons in the budget for me. thank you. i appreciate that. you also mentioned that 15 have been approved. are those to fill the vacancies for this year or next year? >> yes, there is going to be a challenge, especially with the clerk due to the testing process. but we are working through that throughdhr, human-resources department, and whenever we need to do to ensure that those are filled quickly.

commissioner hechanova: i additional questions? commissioner mar: given how difficult it has been to fill positions in the past, have we also looked into bringing back some retirees through prop f, so we contemporary l-- we can temporarily fill some of the positions while we try to hire some prominent ones? >> you have to have a position vacant that is approved. now we have those approved. but the second issue is that, for the most part, the individuals who have retired have gone out with very large salaries. and when they come back for prop f, they go to the lower salary. so to attract people, it is rather difficult. we continue to look at the

feasibility of doing that. but if we can, especially with the engineers come and get those on board quickly, then in makes more sense -- and then if it makes more sense to keep pushing on at that. commissioner murphy: dbi is a real cash cow, as everybody knows. i brought up -- i urged the new commissioners to ask lots of questions regarding the budget, where the money goes. as far as the public needs to know that. regarding a certain $1.7 million on that budget that i asked questions on last week, i got one of our commissioners very angry about that. so i should not ask these questions. i just want to put that out there.

i urge you to ask questions. and, pam, you have done an excellent job. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner melgar: thank you, pam, for that. it is really great. you had come under the budget priorities, a bullet point that i just wanted to have explained it, which is to increase housing and code enforcement activities using resources found in the communities in which they occur. i am not really sure what that means. what does that mean? >> that was actually, there were two words left out of that sentence. that is, not only by the contracts we have with the community based organizations in the community, but also by our staff. so we have two large programs that we administered for code enforcement in housing-related

activities. those are the single room occupancy collaborative, and also we have a program called the code enforcement outreach program. so we continue to have -- to use all the possibilities we have of being -- providing those services, not just through our type of regulatory, but also through people and organizations that are close to the community and can provide more direct information about what we do and how we can help their individual clientele. it is a partnership. commissioner melgar: thank you. another question was that i was looking at the actual budget for

training of staff, and i know a while back the department phased out the lead program, and the inspectors themselves aren't forcing lead in construction -- aren't for sing lead in construction programs. but i do not see that in the training. is that anywhere else in the training? >> the lot of the lead training program is still done by dbh, the environmental, as far as i know. >> it is under the housing code. it is on complaint. most of the lead abatement program is handled through public health. we have one person on the sixth floor that does go on health- related issues concerning lead paint. commissioner melgar: my question

was about training and maintaining the certification so that folks who do enforce the building code side of the lead in construction activities. i did not see it in the training budget for the staff at dbi. i just did not know that was under a different training. so that one person gets trained or keeps up their certification through a different line item? >> there is more than one person that has the certificate in the department. once they achieve the certificate, there are class es that can attend. to my knowledge, we do not have any planned in the budget. however, it is up to the individual chiefs on wide education that they want for

their individual sections. so what would be up to the chief to provide that an additional education. commissioner hechanova: additional questions? comments? i also want to add here, pam, terrific job that you have done. the category that i would also like to ask is on the proposed organizational chart that is currently proposed relative to what is being amended and all the appointments from the first, second, and fifth floors, and the appointments that director day has recommended, i fully endorse. the category of that action will be in lieu of being covered within the budget. am i correct?

>> well, actually, having tom go into this as acting deputy director for permit services, that is a budgeted position. and the of the people that are put in acting are all budgeted positions. so it is always in the budget. commissioner hechanova: thank you. i just wanted that clarification. >> i also want to thank my staff for helping me through the budget process and for being able to help me answer your questions now. i welcome them as we go through the process and on to actually implementing the next two years budget. commissioner murphy: i would like to ask a question of tom huey, related to the budget.

>> good morning, commissioners. my name is tom, from a fifth floor, over the counter services. i am starting next tuesday, and will be the acting deputy director for another service provision. do you feel you have the necessary staff -- commissioner murphy: the fill you have the necessary staff? >> first, i want to thank the commissioners for helping me get all the staff. i appreciate director day and pamela trying to help me get all those positions, because i was crying out loud for the last few months because of the amount of work coming up being substantial. i was disgusted on my next topic -- i will discuss that,

next topic. commissioner murphy: and do you feel like you'll be able that fill those positions? >> personally, i believe we will have sufficient staff to perform the jobs right now. commissioner murphy: do you feel bad business is picking up in your division? >> yeah, that is why wanted to give you the update. commissioner murphy: ok. >> anybody have any questions? ok, thank you. commissioner hechanova: tom, thank you very much. pam, anything to close up or button up before we take action here? >> i just want to ensure the commission -- a sure the commission and i am doing everything i can to keep the

positions and requisitions moving through the process, and our mayor's budget analyst has been at these meetings and recognizes that it is very important to you, and it is important to our ability to provide services. so i am contacting them on a daily basis. commissioner hechanova: ok. commissioner mar: i would like to move that we approve the budget. >> second. commissioner hechanova: before we take action, i would like to thank not only pan am, but dhr, who is essentially the sort of had been department that has been reference to a locked in the category of dhr, financing, and executives as a team has helped to move the department

for work, paying attention to staff, but also to the public. i would like to commend everyone's collective efforts here to make and keep the wheels rolling in the challenges of our current economy. i think there is a threshold by which i think the moving forward with the economy is going to be a tremendous for san francisco. so there was a second. an additional comments? discussion? >> is there any public comment on item number four? >> i am nancy. i want to add my compliments to pamela for preparing a wonderful budgets. she has been very responsive to

meet with my requests for detail on things that nobody in their right mind would ask in detail of, but i like that stuff. i appreciate when we have a responsive and caring bookkeeper and accountant and cfo. i really appreciated as a member of the public. i have one question for you, which is to ask, what is the 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