we were able to put more emphasis on not just new faces, but a lot of existing cases and the biggest thing about code enforcement with a lot of cases, those situations and with that name is, they fix things and walk away. we do understand the need to get more code enforcement and housing inspections. we will work on that. supervisor chu: i would love to do that. i think it is frustrating to hear from the city attorney that

the dbi is not doing enough and to hear from them that the city attorney is not prosecuting the cases. we have to get to an understanding of what is going on. and it is not >> notice -- given that there is a surplus and the challenges you are already aware with -- aware of, what about ensuring a more accurate budget around fowler -- filing salaries? are we certain that we will actually be able to hire those people? >> we have been working with the mayor's office very closely, as well as the department of human resources.

they have put into place a very expedited approach, so that we can get the position through the process. also, one of the things that be discussed with the commission, they came up and we did a presentation for them. there was discussed that trying to make sure that this did not get stale. i do not think that anyone would have been able to forecast the fact that we are this -- the state came down and said to the city that you need to do more rigorous testing and that it would take so long. i do want to say one thing, though. i am not blaming the city

attorney, i was just surprised after dealing directly with them. >> i appreciate that. >> thank you. >> what else are you going to be doing about violations? >> i will turn this over to dan. >> good afternoon, supervisors. we have stepped up the programs on complaints and have taken the last 10 years to do research. it is frustrating for our department and everyone else here. we get a complaint, you investigate it. sometimes it will take a few attempts to get in.

you get a summer time for to be corrected, but they do not. you have to notice the second violation. then you have to go to code enforcement. process is cumbersome. they cannot issue those violations. we have to follow the process. the first notice, the second notice, referred to code enforcement, scheduled directors hearing before there is an order of abatement. often we get an order of abatement with their property based on action. that is when we refer to the litigation committee. there are many of them, and they will have to pick and choose what they want. i know it is frustrating, especially for those complaining about getting the process down.

sueprvisor kim: maybe from a staff perspective, the commission might have a suggestion as to how this could be streamlined? >> we could look at that. the director who is going to look at that, where we put in one notice of violation to get compliance, we like to know the time frame between the notice of violation and the directors hearing. it is a tough situation. a lot of these properties say that they do not have the finances. they still have not corrected the problem.

sueprvisor kim: if property owners are renting to tenants, to prevent them, if their property is up to code and there are several interviews that are open and there is no one -- to stop them from bringing the unit to market. >> i noticed a violation where you had to sell the property. the banks were holding it up and it had to be corrected. they tried to finance the property. for some of these people, i will be happy with something from the past. it is hard for us to demand that they fix it without the funds available for it.

>> thank you. i believe we have 12 more departments. i would like to move to the answers quicker. actually, i think that this issue of the code enforcement is important and i hope that the department will follow up with the supervisors and other members interested in it. we have a number of requests from our district where we have asked for code enforcement. i am hopeful that we can come together to talk about how we can deal with this. from the point of view of the department, you said that we need more staff. when we heard the gentleman speak, he said it was the process that was a problem. i think that we need to get our head around what was holding us up. let's leave that conversation to another time.

if you could follow up? >> you summarize what we sueprvisor kim: jig you summarized -- sueprvisor kim: you summarize what i wanted to say. we have a lot of projects coming down the pipeline. has been frustrating. lastly, i appreciate all of the follow-up information from our briefing last week on cultural competency. i did want to bring it up again, what can we do to also do a better job around our vacant an abandoned building registration ordinance? 153 out of 538 is not a good number. if we need to put more staff on that, if that is part of the issue, we should. that generates revenue for the department. i think that there are many more

vacant buildings not even on this list. beyond the issue of complying with a lot, it contributes to neighborhood safety issues in a number of other problems. there is no actual reason to want people to pay into the big vacancy, and it makes it expensive for them to keep the buildings vacant. but what is making it inflated, this is an important issue to prioritize. supervisor chu: thank you. i think that we could go on about this issue. but let's move on to the major initiative and then move forward. >> in terms of the major initiative and the corresponding items within the budget, as we mentioned, we are requesting additional staff. it would still be less than 607.

we have not gone above that level. we are budgeting for an increase in training that is required for several reasons. one, to comply with state and local laws, including a certified access specialist programs, which are required by the state, with state required certification and code training. in addition, we still have people that were not able to be trained over the last year because they either were not in our department or we did not have time to actually offer the training that they needed to do their job. we have increased community outreach to educate citizens and potential customers. this is done in a culturally competent manner.

we are also proposing to reinstate the vehicle placement plan, which starts with vehicles at the end of life or, in terms of maintenance, during the tank. other major initiatives, as we continue to work on the tracking system, another planning has talked about it a little, but right now we have been working with the departments that currently use the system and are in the configuration stage. we are still scheduled for implementation in november 2013. we will start working with other departments. any department can use the system. we need to just understand and work with them on how their implementation would work. we have also participated in project poll, this summer.

a yearlong type of internship, we have used works. and then the language access ordinance. we are in compliance. we have many things that we are doing. we have 18 supported and -- inspection staff that are bilingual in chinese and spanish. everything is provided in english, chinese, and spanish. we have telephone lines for chinese and spanish-speaking customers. we have a voice recognition system for scheduling inspections. both of our contracts for the single room occupancy programs provide services, depending upon the area in the city.

chinese, russian, and other languages. finally, in terms of professional services, that budget is about 3.9 million. 1.8 is the permanent tracking system. primarily it is the singular market code enforcement. we had a couple of things that were i.t.-related, but the majority were non-profit. supervisor chu: thank you. i want to caution against a large investment in the translation feature from google on the website. i know they do not accurately reflect the intention. i would be careful before you invest too much in that and perhaps speak to the office of civic engagement before you do so. in terms of harvey

recommendations, the department is working with the budget analyst? >> let me state for the record, absolutely we are working with the department and will report back to you next week. robe -- regarding supervisors comments about the surplus, our recommendations are extremely modest. our recommendations, if you expect -- accept them, will not impact the services the supervisors want. one year from now, test me out on this. if i am still here, you will see our recommendations as modest. the total recommendations, page 17 but, -- page 17, of that amount $1,700,000 are ongoing

savings. it allows for the department's 12-13 budget. we recommend closing the unexpected incumbrance. together these recommendations result in $700,000 in savings. 13-14, the recommended reduction is 743. of those, all of those, it is all ongoing savings. an increase of 408,000. as i stated, we absolutely work with the department, who says they will provide us with additional information. they have not given us any information that would make us change the attrition savings.

if they can demonstrate, with documentation, we will change the recommendations. sueprvisor kim: this is a question that i have that touches on multiple departments. how do you evaluate the need for the number of vehicles that we have by department? i wonder if we need all the vehicles that we have on the road. should we look at replacing the feet -- the fleet? before we look at whether we are using them optimally, for car sharing, car pooling, and others. you cannot believe that we use all of the cars that we have at all times. how do you do that surface analysis? >> certainly, we are of limited from this standpoint. we are not making field

investigations to determine actual need. however, we do look at mileage, when the car was purchased, maintenance costs, that kind of thing. looking at the number of vehicles that they have, it is all taken into consideration. >> thank you. supervisor cohen: there is something that wanted to communicate, from my perspective. there is a need for dbi to have the ability to do their outreach. one of the things i am most concerned about, when i look at their budget, they have a list of community-based organizations that have contacted with to do the community outreach. i do not believe that all of these organizations are doing

exactly what they can to the best of their ability. i am in the bill that conflicted. i am not sure if we need to add money to the department for that -- for there outreach, or set up a fund to assist the department with outreach, or provide training for outreach camp. i am not quite sure, but the purpose in trying to communicate is the importance of this department in southeastern neighborhoods in the wake of -- >> we have not made any recommendations toward the aspect you are talking about. if you take our recommendations that we have made, you can certainly, depending upon your committee and board of

supervisor policy priorities, reallocate those moneys to the areas you feel are needed and justified. you can certainly do that during this budget process. supervisor chu: in your analysis, did you see any indication of a contingency fund? or a pool of money? no? >> we have not, but we will take a special look at that for next week. supervisor chu: i would like to thank the department of building inspection for your presentation. we look forward to seeing you next week. if i could make a request, we have about 12 apartments to go through. perhaps we could be concise in presentations and answering questions that come out. >> certainly, good afternoon,

supervisors. i will try to make this as quick as we can. i am joined here today by our chief of administration and their chief of staff. as we get the power point set up, let me say that we would like to go over with you some accomplishments from the past year. secondly to look at our volume trends. the budget, of course, the department initiatives and some of the position changes that we are proposing, answering your questions about summary employment opportunities and language towards access efforts. this past year listed some of our major workups. the transit planned -- transit center plan is something that you will see very soon. all of the work leads up to the approval of the c p m c.

some of the restaurant legislation, i know it is near and dear to supervisor wiener's heart, and mine. we are on schedule with building inspection for the permanent tracking system, 40% complete, on schedule to go live next year. in terms of our case in permanent volume trends, what you see on this chart in our form is the volume activity and a dark line revenue trend. obviously, the downturn at the low point is 2008, when the recession hit at full force, reducing budget and encounters at that time. two years later we experienced growth in volume and fee revenues. what we are seeing now is, in fact, a slight increase in

volume with a more substantial increase in revenue based on the size of projects coming forward. many of them also, most recently, fill the positions on a temporary basis to work on temporary projects, like the america's cup. with the economic uncertainty and our growing dependence on grants, we felt it was important to make sure that we opted on a permanent basis to have the temporary staff we have hired as well. we are expecting a volume increase of 3% in the next fiscal year, with some leveling off. we do not expect that volume increased to go up indefinitely. i think that that is fairly consistent with what is being suggested. i will say that the building permit review represents more than 80% of department volume and in 2008, 2009, when we

experienced that downturn, there was a volume drop of 18% which represented the most significant drop of the last eight fiscal years. so, in terms of our revenue budget, the largest portion is a fee that we collect for permanent entitlement review. these are expected to increase by 6% to 7% with an automatic consumer price index that next year is assumed at about 2.25%. that is automatic and authorized under the planned administrative code. we are assuming about 3% volume increase in cases. we are expecting a slight decrease in grants. that decline will be offset by the department. we are anticipating a small percentage of anticipated impact

fees that can be used to cover administrative processes. just a note, there is a technical adjustment that we will need to make. we might have mentioned this to you. the budget is showing $2.3 million of development impact fee revenue that needs to be in the rec and park impact development budget. i understand that the comptroller's office is aware that and the need to make the adjustment as we move forward. let me just move forward to the expenditure budget. so, our most significant expenditures continue to be department staff, which represents 68% of all expenditures. salary and fringe costs are expected to increase by 5.8% over the next two years.

we do have some increase in non-personnel services for one time expenditures. such as the individual funding transportation sustainability program. for the first time, we have some capital budget expenditures this year. the better market street program and the street inventory program, all of which is a joint effort with other departments, primarily public works and the mta. the capital outlay also reflects the $2.3 million, which will be adjusted in shifted over to the rec and park department. as you heard, from the city attorney's office, there will be services from other departments that will be increased by half of a million dollars. we are seeing an extraordinary increase in litigation related to planned increases.

we have got the actual dollars being spent for the last couple of years, unfortunately, as the supervisor pointed out, we would love to spend it elsewhere, but we are forced to deal with it with a number of cases going to litigation these days. in terms of department initiatives, quickly, we are working with the mta, transportation authority, we think that we will move into environmental review on the project in the coming fiscal year. we are working on the pay to the park program. we are anticipating improving and working on two or three new plazas in the coming year. the park program has been used the successful. i think we just cut the ribbon on the 27th. we have 40 or 50 more in the pipeline. the street tree inventory is

coming up with the department of public works and defense of the rainforest. we have been tried to do this for a long time, inventory the trees in the city right away. we are working with the d b i and the department tracking system, of course. as i said earlier, it is about 40% complete. the transportation sustainability program, legislation has been introduced and we are very excited about that and moving into the environmental review phase of that project. we are in negotiations with the contractor on that. in the central corridor, we are one year into the process. we introduced the final range of alternatives that we wanted to study. we are looking at, of course, spending a lot of time on the proposed warriors arena.

as you can see, the mayor has proposed a cup of positions before that as well. in terms of changes -- supervisor chu: before you move on, these are all simply major department initiatives funded by the general, correct? >> they are not all general fund. you can see the second call on the slide. the only one that is not is the warriors are been up. the rest is funded to the general fund. supervisor chu: thank you. >> in terms of position changes. we are proposing an assistant director of current planning.

primarily about dealing with process improvements. there is a proposed management assistant that will help to analyze reports for staff time, county time, and so on. there is a position that because strengthening neighborhoods. this is our peace of that program. we will be working with oewb on streetscape issues. there are programs that we are proposing where they would not only be doing the environmental review, but they would be having more on that project as well. sueprvisor kim: