out of it. that is just used to determine the level of service needs within the department based on an hourly rate. you are paying for the hourly service on the larger projects, however, we have found you could have a small project and an inspector can expend a lot more time on than a larger project due to the complexity of the smaller project and the contractor or homeowner doing the job. it had to be all balance out and that is why we had to hire an outside firm to do it. we did the study based on 2006 numbers and it came out and was approved in 2008. we have not raised fees since then due to the economy. >> thank you.

>> on the first page of the report, there is an expenditure recovery. >> that is when we do work for another department. we do work for the mta. >> how come there is a negative? >> it's a long story. the way accounting works here is that it is treated as a reduction to expenditures instead of as revenue. technically, we extend and do a service and they pay gas. the way this city does it is weak gross be expenses and net a reduction to expenditures.

it is one of the various accounting measures that can be done. >> does this come from the general fund money? >> planning pays us for a collection of their revenues, but in their general fund, a small amount of general fund, most of the others are and t a -- those are the major ones and they are not there or fee based. >> thank you. >> update on proposed legislation. >> good morning, commissioners. just to give you a quick update

based on what we have put in your packet -- the public arts trust fund has now been sent to the mayor and we expect that to take legal effect around the 10th or 11th of may. that will involve additional collection unit work by the fee collection unit. supervisor chu put forth legislation for office sought improvements and that passed yesterday. the idea there is in the month of may we have a pilot program to see if more small businesses will come in for wanting replacements. the department is waiving the normal fees based on a three- year review that might cost 12 or $15,000. we will have to monitor this to

see exactly what it does cost in case there is a proposal to go forward and make this a more regular program. you heard from supervisor wiener a little while ago to approve the efficiency unit and that was favorably recommended by the code advisory committee. that is about the end of what is going on right now for local matters. i am still waiting for an update from supervisor david c hiu for a certain space would have to meet certain requirements and the building permit would be held until those measures are taken. but that is still in the process according to the supervisor's office. on the state legislative side, most of these have not changed much from what i have given you before.

you might be interested in the fact that the one talking about increasing training standards has dropped the earlier idea of insisting people where identifiable uniforms which was very much opposed by california building officials. however, they are requiring a code enforcement officers would have to take and pass certain examination requirements in order to carry out a peace officer light duties. that is still very much in the works. california building officials are meeting tomorrow and reviewing a number of these legislative matters. we will possibly have more details on that at the next meeting. 1994 is another measure that deals with ada, is to have

planning department to make decisions that are in the jurisdiction of building departments and of such, they and most of the other building officials are opposing this. i have been told it is not going to be pushed forward this year, understanding there has been quite a bit of pushed back by building officials saying this is really not the way to go. the final thing i will mention -- that left some handouts on the table the mayor put out a press release yesterday, encouraging legislation that the attorney general is pushing forward on behalf of mortgage protection, one part deals exclusively with fighting blight. two of the bills give us more

tools and charge penalties up to three times what current penalties are in order to provide incentives for property to be maintained if it is no longer going to be occupied due to foreclosure proceedings. i think that is about it. >> i just wanted to add v discourse on the code enforcement officers. every inspector call every engineer is a code enforcement officer that deals with the codes. that is why the building officials are taking such a hard stance on everyone wearing a uniform. that would be in the clerks to make decisions would wear uniforms and that is of little bit much for some large jurisdictions. los angeles put up the biggest fight. >> it was reported in the paper

that supervisor cohen introduced legislation about blighted properties and foreclosed properties customer >> that is tied in with this package on a local level and i did bring a copy of that legislation. >> this is local enabling legislation? >> yes. this is on the 30 day calendar and probably will not come up for another month in committee. >> thank you. >> update on permit tracking system. >> we are doing really well on the permit tracking system. we have met with and gone over what the requirements are for our configuration as it was

mentioned a couple of times here. we have communicated our needs and they are recognizing the configuration documents that we are working through signing off and they will start of actual program and configuration. they have met with all areas of our staff and the worked through items that have interface in terms of having information flow and people flow between planning and our departments and fire and dpw. we are doing quite well working on the system to improve our processes and you will be happy with that and more importantly, that our citizens will be happy with it.

we are working on a program for cash management. we have been working with the treasurer tax collector and we are going to have additional cash drawers to our stations where people come up to pay us so we will be able to move things forward more quickly and we will increase the accountability. that will need to work with our existing system and have to work with the new system. we are, as i speak, spending the whole day with the vendor to make sure what we need is going to be provided. >> item 10 b, update on major projects.

>> good morning, commissioners. you received an update on the major project -- is good news -- more money coming end. any question you have -- also, yesterday, we had a pickup for one of the project. they paid half a million dollars on 505 howard. you can see the cranes, the tower crane. that is why the construction is booming for the big project. >> in reference to your issue of staffing, if we were going to your institutional memory, where

would you put this volume of major projects in the past? >> >> 2007, roughly counting, we have 60 roughly including engineer and inspector, but in this moment for us, we are about half the staff. >> with respect to this volume of 54 major projects, in 2007, which you have had 54 major projects? >> i cannot tell you the exact number, but we had a little bit more than that, maybe 20% more?

>> you are dramatically understaffed to address the volume? >> the number of staff is substantially lower. >> thank you. any more questions? >> thank you. update on status and activation. >> as you know, we were looking at implementing this last november. we have done quite a bit of work in terms of making sure staff wasn't available and was in the right place. we have now talked over and are working less the deputy director on what he envisions

an we have some minor hardware and software issues we are working through. we are trying to finalize the documents we will provide to the public and get them translated into cantonese and spanish because the city requires we provide our documents in three different languages. in terms of what we are looking at, we are looking at three or four weeks down the line. we don't want to put out the notification to people we're going to implement until we get a really good idea of what we are facing in terms of the translation services. >> thank you.

in translation, it is just instruction how to use the system? everything else is done, the staff has been retrained? >> yes. the actual translation is not only instructions on the staff but for the public and is frequently asked questions and we are ready in terms of personnel and people know what they need to do. we does have to get things tweaked a little. >> three or four weeks? >> translation, once we get it to the vendors, they will take a week to turn it around. we have to review it with our

staff so they are able to read cantonese and spanish to make sure that is finalized. we're not going to make fancy brochures at this time. just a paper copy. then we need to have a time frame in terms of notification. four weeks is about right. >> the english version is finalized? >> know, we're still tweaking it to be with the final period once it is done, i can provided for your review, but i have not actually gotten it yet. >> i want to add that we are instituting an express line for

the fire department -- they want an express line for permits for the people who just need something signed off instead of completely plan checked. this is something new that was thought up at the end. we are doing as much as we can to make sure everyone does not get stuck in a line. we do not want a line. that is what we are trying to do. >> up date on other technology projects? >> we have been focusing on trying to improve customer service on the web.

we are doing the requests over the web where you can request and pay. in some cases, we have faxed it to people but you can start the process. we are also working on people being able to other requests so we are looking at how those would be developed. you have all heard me mention we are being a model department in terms of combining server equipment from the human services agency planning departmentour department. it is a very slow process to get even other bids from other departments on how much it would cost to do these improvements,

getting a group -- approval from the department of technology. we did achieve two weeks ago a signed a memorandum of understanding between the departments that with what kind of equipment that we would require an of what the general scope of the equipment room would look like. there are still some things we need to work out, but we are now just trying to get approval of that through the department of technology. i mentioned the cash management system. then the other thing i did want to tell you is that we are getting a small number of mobile devices to be able to start looking at what is going to be required for support by mis and what is needing to be developed, so that we can start getting people used to them. by the time we have an increment

tracking system, they will be more familiar and able to actually use the devices. >> and also the mobil does not -- devices will be used for disaster preparedness. we have a program given to us by fema that will be down loaded on to the system so that the inspectors will be able to do their forms on to the devices. it is a fema approved program that we will have training on. and i think we have six to be tested, just to make sure that there is the right kind of device that we want to use in the field and that they are viable for these sectors. we did not want to go out and buy 150 computers and then find out that they cannot use them at all. so, they will be testing those soon. >> commissioner? >> that is great. i just wanted to ask about

acknowledging receipt of the request. did we send out any automatic information back to the customers, just as we had the request? it would take us that long to process. and do we tell them when to expect the report to be ready? >> we do not tell them when to expect it, it is dependent on the number of requests that, in. right now, we are working on trying to shorten the time frame that it takes to get a 3r report. we are going to have to do something to acknowledge the request and in some of the other cases, because the credit card companies have changed their policies, we needed to make sure that we had something that said -- yes, you actually paid for this. or else, when there is what they

call a charge back, which is when we all do our disputes about being charged to much for something, we have proof we have actually provided the service. yes, we need to do that and i believe we can recognize that. >> any further questions? >> 10g, update on new hires. >> pam mentioned this earlier. we have hired 28 new people since the beginning of this fiscal year. most of those have been -- it has been distributed throughout the department in various categories, as we could get them. we just interviewed for the 1406, a clerical position, entry-level permit tech. we will be hiring three to four of those people, freeing up

positions. it will keep rotating as we fill in positions to temporary positions that are limited duration positions that go away and become full-time positions. we are working on that. the clerical came out when they said they would. we just have some problems, internally, in terms of where we will be placing people. we have had several people due to layoffs in other departments that have bumped into our department and in most cases have been very good for the department. we actually got peace -- people faster than we work through the recruitment process. we will be announcing them at the next meeting, our new hires. >> with regards to the new hires, can you talk more about the 5214's and when we expect a time frame? >> the 5214's and do not have a list.

they will be testing for that. we have two people in those positions in that right now as acting. we are filling the positions vacated at the lower position as temporary positions. so, we are getting the same number of people, but we have promoted -- not internally, but -- but they're getting paid for working in a higher classification until they can create a list. >> we are working first on the referral engineers. basically, there is a list out there and there is a meeting right after this meeting with our personnel person and vivian to double check on the priorities. but we are working with each deputy director to make sure that as soon as we request a list that we can put everything together and hire, because you

have one month to do that. those are the civil service rules. so, we are working with getting more staff. >> i have another question after this one. you, first. >> here on this one, i really see the real problem here with this becoming the volume of work coming down the pipes that is already in there. >> that is true. >> i am really concerned that this keeps getting kicked down the road. i need to get some kind of time mind as to -- first i need it from you, because i need to get from you your urgency. i do not want these projects to suffer because we have the opportunity right now to put people in and we did not. i really want to hear from you to stress that fact. i want to hear from you.

the hand is really coming down at different points right now >> first of all, the good news is we have [unintelligible] coming back next week. also, we have 52 on the puc coming back next month. also, the urgency over prioritizing what we would get. the 41 in the lease, passing at, hopefully maintaining a monthly higher for those people to come back. and then we will stop looking at other, lighter, 5214. then, also, the inspector. because we cannot do it all at once, we need to prioritize to, before we go to the chief. >> i understand that.

i get that. from you, as deputy director, the two new hires that you have got the two mentioned, this is a good step forward that will happen. i ordered them on the 24th, i believe. it is a good step forward in the world you are living in right now. >> the retiring 5214 is coming back and i am relieved somewhat. but he is only coming back for some time to help out. and then the 07 comes back next month. also, hopefully, we can have the test folks being 241, and consequently we will have to test for the 14. >> the 5214's, there are approximately five of them? >> 41.

>> 5241 is the next one. >> 5 is the 5241. i think two of them are 5214. >> what are the common denominators that will be burdened on you, deputy director, to put a tester -- test together? i presume that that would be next week or whenever? right? >> once the list comes in and be billed the invitation to the question for the personnel, the panel is ready. once they pass the test, correct me if i am wrong? >> we have to make the job offer. then they have to accept the job. if they are internal, they have to give notice to their other department. that can take a couple of weeks. we are trying to get a list of

those approved positions. tom is already working on the interview panel questions. he already has the panel chosen. he knows who's going to be on it. as soon as we can get the list with the applications, we can be able to interview. >> awarding the jobs, theoretically? >> in a land of milk and honey, they are all privileged to work here at this department. when do they actually become -- when do they actually get in? >> june, or some time. it depends on the people's offer. we are trying our best to get the test and set them up right away. maybe they want to take a month off or whenever. >> when they except the job, they have no further department to check in with? it