overhead has not been turned on. i am talking about page two right now. we have had some of the growth of property taxes in our assessment roll from $70 billion to $155 billion. we anticipate continuing to have a slight, very modest growth, but relative to every other county in the state, we are actually doing pretty well, considering that many counties, especially those hardest hit by a property value reductions, are actually seeing decreases on their property tax rolls. we have seen a slight uptick, and we think we will be summer around $155 billion for this coming year. very quickly, the additional revenue that comes in are called supplementals, is give revenues. we brought in a little over $100 billion of the additional revenue which goes into our property tax rolls. what has been critical in our

staff being able to bring in processes assessment is we had two additional teams of seven staff each working on our assessment appeals. we have had over 6000 appeals come in each year the last couple of years. that has been critical to have time limited staff to work on the appeals, which we hope will start to dissipate in the next two years. transfer taxes have actually done extremely well this year, so the market is starting to rebound as you all have started to feel. we raised the transfer tax rate from 2008 and 2010, and we are benefiting now at an all-time high, about $186 million, and we're actually over $200 million in transfer taxes. we have been able to bring in about $16.5 million in under-

reported and unrecorded documents, and that was thanks to a loophole that we close our in the 2008 transfer tax law, as well as us being a little bit more aggressive in making sure the people are actually accurately reporting the values of real estate as they come into an office. this gives you an idea of the assessment appeals. we had a huge spike from 2007- 2008 to the 2009-2010 year, and it has hovered on in that range. we think that will significantly drop in the next couple years. we think that that will really help alleviate all of -- a lot of the stress on our staff. that is why we only ask for time-limited staff previous year. and we will be able to not bring those people back because the appeals or kroger's -- go drastically down. supervisor chu: with regards to

the outstanding cases, it has. up to a very high level. typically, the city has experienced some more like 1000 or 2,000 or so of those cases. for the city, do we create a reserve generally for a situation where we have outstanding appeals pending? >> yes, the controller's office has set aside about a $40 million reserve in the past. i think it was increased going into this year. monique could probably speak much better about appeared we work very closely with the office to identify what is in the pipeline, what we think might be the approximate -- a very general reductions in value, but there's always a set- aside, in particular for the commercial property. supervisor chu: for c theontr -- for the controller's office, can

you speak to what we generally do for appeals cases overall? >> members, monique from the controller's office. we do set aside reserves based on appeals. we look at what the latest appeals of bent and we project those amounts -- and appeals have been and we project those amounts we estimate. supervisor chu: it is sort of like holding something in reserve, basically. money has been allocated for expenditure, and if we end up tapping into it, we have to cut back -- >> we actually reduce our revenue estimate based on that. supervisor chu: supervisor kim? supervisor kim: thank you. by the way, congratulations on getting down from 16,000 to 10,000 buying your backlog. there have been a series of e- mails from residents complaining

about the length of time that it is taking for these assessments. i am wondering if you can address that? >> absolutely. your district in particular along with supervisor avalos and supervisor cohen's districts were there are a number of short sales in foreclosure is occurring, it will take longer. traditionally, it would be processed in rare between three to five months. by purchased a home that was on the market, in general the gets processed rather quickly. unfortunately, foreclosures and short sales, because it is not always market pricing, we have had to set them aside and put him in it with everything else. because of that, it might even take upwards of two years or 18 months to do those. so, obviously, we definitely get calls from your staff and tried to walk them thru with the status is for different ones. but for residential ones, it is primarily due to the fact that

their short sales or foreclosures. what we have to do is determine the market value, and we cannot take only sales price by itself, so we have to look at comparable properties and do an analysis that is similar to how we do much larger properties. that is why it takes so much time. supervisor kim: because you have been able to dramatically reduce this number from 16,000 to 10,000 in the past year, do you think that will continue with that additional staffing? >> yeah, the goal is to be caught up in six months. really, we are about, probably by the time we closed the fiscal year at the end of this month, probably be close to the 20 months. the idea is by june of next year to be almost at six months or to be pretty close to six months. supervisor kim: thank you. >> in previous years, there have been questions regarding metrics and performance standards.

sorry for these small overhead. but this gives you an idea how we track each appraiser. it gives you a sense of their production and how much work has been done. this is a snapshot with not a lot of the numbers filled in. it just gives you a sense of what has been produced on a weekly basis. and i look out on this with the managers in my office as well as the individual supervisors for those units. so we're tracking of the change in ownership, new construction, the condominiums, the assessment appeals cases, reductions, so we're doing this to a very fine level. we also weight them. people with larger properties will get a little more weighted value. we have a pretty decent and on how much production is going through on almost every staff level. this gives you an idea of our general fund budget. we were actually able to get a pretty significant increase in

budget because of significant workload and money we have been able to bring in. we have seen a slight reduction this year, and that is probably due to the fact that we have money set aside for assessment appeals litigation that we do not feel we needed to keep holding onto, so part of that was given back during our budget process. last, another was a question regarding staffing and workload. you can see that our staffing has gone from a point where we had about 112 permanent staff to now 130 permanent staff. the bulk of the staffing increase last year occurred for 24 time-limited staff. in this one line is just the assessment appeals shirts. even though we have had a slight increase in staffing, the assessment appeals have sort of gone way off the charts. so that is really that time- limited group of staff of 24 is really there to help us and that significant workload. we tried to map it with new

construction, but we do not have as much good historical data for that, which is why we use assessment appeals as a proxy. and it then, last, there was a question regarding language access. that has been a major thing for me personally in our office. we have worked very closely with adrienne and her team to provide language services. we have language clients in our office, the two phone lines were a taxpayer and our staff to talk with a taxpayer between. we have russian, chinese speaking step in our office. currently, if people request letters of assessed evaluation in spanish or chinese, we do that. we have had a couple hundred requests in that. we have gone requests in the past for cantonese, spanish, vietnamese, cambodian, russian, and caribbean, and their

services we have been able to accommodate and work with folks. happy to stop there. we're in discussions with the budget analysts. we're not in complete agreement yet, but i anticipate we will be by this time last -- next week. supervisor chu: thank you. with regards to your expectations for the department going forward, in terms of the number of appeals, you still have a large number of outstanding appeals, but the expectation is that is going to come down, correct? >> correct. we have a two-year lag. so we're working on appeals from two years ago. so over the next two years, we will see a pretty significant drop in appeals. talking to realtors and people in the industry, it is clear that the market has started to significantly rebound. we believe that two years from now, we probably will not be needing those 24 time-limited staff. if circumstances change, obviously we would bring that

back before this body. but that is what we anticipate. supervisor chu: we have recently seen through the controller's office's report that transfer tax and spend at a very high level. in terms of your workload with regards to transfers, what do we expect from that. it sounds like they expect that the transfer tax level will not sustain itself. it is sort of at a high level and probably will not continue for several years. >> that is probably true. i mean, we have not figured out where the new kind of sweet spot is with the 2008-2010 increase. in the past few years, you would probably say $80 million would have been given as the median market in the past. with the new increases, it is kind of hard for, at least to

me, to say -- perhaps the controller's office will have better estimates, but in terms of property taxes, as appeals come down, our assessments or go up. so we will get more work on the assessment side, but i think we're much better prepared to handle that work than many of the assessment appeals which actually can be quite time intensive and take quite a bit of time on the staff. supervisor chu: i know that the department has been working on a number of initiatives in conjunction with the treasurer's office. can you speak a little bit to that and where you are? >> we're very proud of the i.t. work. we have gone through the process. it has been wonderful. we actually came out as a top- rated project. we have been working on upgrading our assessment system, but we also have a number of other individual initiatives. we're going to be in e announcing-recordings -- we're

going to be announcing e- recording and going paperless beard we will have an open portal for people to submit documents online, which i think is very exciting. we're trying to become much more user-friendly by putting a lot more of our documentation online. we have a youtube video that is used as a training video for filling out forms in our office. those are many of the initiatives that we're looking to push forward, and we're very excited that every time we checked back in, we get a very positive response. supervisor chu: is there a general time line when some of these items might be implemented? >> the major issue for us moving forward is how we upgrade our assessment system, which is actually rather old and still in cobalt. no other major county in california has successfully upgraded their system. the one county we're looking at collaborating with more closely is orange county.

a member of our staff took a trip down there last week to see if we could utilize what they have learned over the last couple of years, so we look at have been much closer collaboration with orange county to upgrade our property tax system. supervisor chu: thank you. supervisor kim? supervisor kim: i was also happy to hear that we were finally able to put in place some of the work you have been doing to update the technology and that it has been coming through savings from over the past several years. because it is a large dollar amount. it is great to see the planning come into place this year. my questions were similar to what we have been asking other departments, which is -- first, professional services. how much does your department currently spent on professional services? what services do usually contract out for? >> we spend very, very little. my guess is probably less than 5%. the only kind of services to

contract out for is we have a software vendor license. trying to think what other services to contract out. >> kimberly -- chief administrative officer. predominately it is i.t. so we contract out for our software vendor for it the easy access system. we also contract out for our recorder system called adpak. those of the two major services contracts. supervisor kim: my next question is in particular for our homeowners. what percentage of your staff is a bilingual or spinks another language besides english, and how you provide language services when you need them -- or speak another language? >> we have a significant number of staff who are bilingual. primarily spanish thus speaking or mandarin and cantonese- speaking. we also translated lot of our information. part of our website assigned

janice -- trainees or spanish. we have letters the got to taxpayers in spanish and chinese. and we can also use that phone to help with immediate, on the spot translations. supervisor kim: i saw that. you think what you have existing on staff meets the needs of your office? >> one challenging thing is, you know, stuff are sometimes reticent about not reticent to help, but they do not necessarily get compensated for it. we have been encouraging more staff to get certified to the civil services system. it is also quite onerous. because once certified, they are required to spend a certain hours per week to provide those services. now, we do not necessarily feel like we have to set aside those hours. we really want them to be available if customers come on board, especially for the appraisers who this is their job to be working the front counter.

it would be great for us to be a work more closely with dhr's on a more streamlined, a bilingual, language certification process, so that anybody who speaks the language could be certified in could get some compensation, because a lot of it is spur of the moment. we know we have a russian speaker in the office. is always very helpful, but some staff may not always have that same attitude. supervisor kim: thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. why don't we move forward to the budget analyst report. >> madam chair, members, our recommended reductions total $783,340 in 2012-2013. $576,603 are one-time savings. this would be an increase of

1.9%. the 2012-2013 budget. regarding 2013-2014, our recommended reductions total $2,011,713, and they're all ongoing savings. and we're still working with the department, and we will report back to you next week. supervisor chu: thank you. colleagues, if there are no questions, what to think the successor -- assessor for the presentation. supervisor kim: i am sorry. i noticed you had a drop in the second year, fy 2013-2014, down to $1.3 million. do you have a one-time project that is accounted for this drop by a professional services? i was just curious. >> is that in the general fund?

or is that in the restricted funds? supervisor kim: we can talk about this offline. it is what i have under your line-item of professional services, which a allocated for fiscal year 2012-2013 and 2013- 2014. i think it is a mixture of funds. 2012-2013, you have allocated $2.7 million, and it declines the next year to $1.3 million. >> yes, that is the one-time investment from our restricted fund that we're finding ourselves. the e-recording and the upgrade of the recorded division that was mentioned. supervisor kim: thank you. >> ok. supervisor chu: thank you. colleagues, we will go back to the general order of departments. the next department is the treasure island development authority. we have mary ann from treasure

island. >> good afternoon. i am the director of island operations. before we reviewed the numbers, i would like to take a minute and highlight some of these from the past year. we were designated as a state redevelopment agency in february. we were not exercising redevelopment powers at the time of that de-designation. so we continue as a nonprofit reuse authority for the planning in the future treasure island. in operations, staff continues to provide property management to our son 2,800 residents and commercial tenants. we continue to make good on our motto, recreation destination. this year we hosted the susan g. komen walk for the tour. the flea market is the monthly

attraction, and we have five wineries. more importantly, our staff works tirelessly to improve the quality of life and the delivery of services for our residents. we installed chargers for electric jiggles this past year. we expanded our composting program. we granted a new lease for another food market to serve treasure island residents. in the area public safety, we have improved our street lighting. we rolled out the water for a safety program to reduce risks. we exercise our first tabletop exercise for emergency response plans. lastly, in furtherance of the mayor's office initiatives, we housed homeless families by creating a temporary emergency housing plan to assist human services to meet their short- term housing needs for those displaced fire victims. this year's budget, the biggest step in the bombing for the coming years is the implementation of the early news

associated with the transition plan, which will move ydi tenants to treasure island so the first phase can begin. we have budgeted accordingly for those moves. we predict annual revenues to be about $8.3 million, the majority of which is for housing revenue. another $2 million from commercial residents, and the balance from special events. on the expenditure side, our expenses are contractually and work-order driven. our contracts include a large standing agreements with professional and specialized services. landscaping, a tool works, and tihdi, the treasure island housing development initiative which provides employment opportunities for those disadvantaged residents of san francisco. other community-based contracts include funding for the ymca,

the boys and girls club, and catholic charities which keeps our child care services open. the remaining expenses are work order-driven with work orders with gs, dpw, pc, and the city attorney's office. next year, we will focus on quality of life issues. a number of enhancements are proposed, in addition to improving safety and risk. including residential street paving projects. funding for youth to attempt -- to attend camp mendicity no overnight. the key priorities for the staff include the conveyance and transfer of the first phase, agreements for the expansion of the marina, and to begin their ramp improvement projects. again, we received no funds from the city to meet these obligations and capital needs. i request your approval of our

bet -- of our budget. staff is available for any questions you may have. sueprvisor kim: thank you. sorry. i had a quick question. in terms of the relocation of the residents of treasure island, which i know we have been planning for for a long time, i was curious, with financing for the development as a whole, as the developers seek financing, has there been any conversation in delaying the process until there is more certainty? or will we have it regardless of the fact that we do not know when the construction might begin? >> we are all confident at this point that next year we will be relocating residents. residents will be leaving no sooner than january, receiving a 90 day notice to move. we are confident that we're

going to get started on the project in earnest beginning in july of next year. we donot want to delay the phasing of the project. >> we have some general commitments from the developer that we will be able to begin that work in july of 2013? >> right. there is plenty of infrastructure work to get it started. sueprvisor kim: >> i just want to make sure that we are doing it when we need to, instead of when we planned to, regardless of when the work happened. >> that was understood with the residents in the meetings over the past month. sueprvisor kim: i knew that there was resolution around prevailing wage. i was hoping you could speak to that. >> we had an issue with our service contracts. on the tool works issue, we have

resolved the treasure island contract for another year, with that training program. as you know, it is a 10-week program offered to individuals to gain experience and move on to the work world. the second contract that we have, which we have delayed for three months, as we seek to understand the language in the agreement, which spoke to an area of standard wage, on the rubicon contract the staff was looking for three months to sort that out for your approval and resolution of that contract. thank you. sueprvisor kim: looks like in your budget there is the addition of a senior analyst being requested. is that the 1 new position? >> correct. sueprvisor kim: can you explain

the position in terms of the redevelopment implementation plan? speak to me about why you could not absorb this within the work of your existing staff. >> as you know, development projects, those needs ebb and flow. the transition plan has begun in earnest. we believed that we needed staff with experience in special projects relocation to meet those needs. sueprvisor kim: is this decision a time-limited position? how long would you expect that you need to service it? >> for a couple of years through the transition process. sueprvisor kim: so, it is a permanent position? >> as permanent as it can be. sorry, i have been corrected.

it is time-limited. >> in the administrative services budget, we have recommended this position to be unlimited, a 10-year position. supervisor chu: thank you. we are fine with that. >>ok, thank you. i know that there are no recommendations, perce, attached to this component. >> we would be glad to respond to any questions. supervisor chu: thank you. given that there are no recommendations at this time and we will take a look at it as it comes along, i do not believe that we will require you to come back next week. thank you. the next department is the department of building inspection.

>> good afternoon. we have a short presentation that we would like to make on the budget. before that, the president of our commission would like to say a few words. >> thank you, supervisors. my name is angus mccarthy. i would like to thank the madam chair for giving me my opportunity to come and talk. i would like to be here to show our