the many years they have been keeping the department going. the budget before you today, i believe this task -- the staff asked for a 4% to 5% increase. i believe that the budget analysis is coming back with 1%. i am here to reinforce one very important factor. we have seen a lot of major changes in the city. the big department is an important part of that change. but the growth happening in the town, one of the things that we have right now, which worries me, going forward in the budget, we have a lot of positions we are trying to fill. we are learning, very lately, how hard it is to fill these positions. lots of stones from the department need to be met to meet these positions. this year alone i believe we

will have almost seven new staff that are badly needed. you will hear testimony from the different department heads on the kind of volume we are experiencing. it is not necessarily just small projects, but very large projects. we are very understaffed to deal with this and it will take as a few years to catch up. one of my concerns looking forward is that the supervisors recognize that we constantly have to fill these positions and it takes time. we have not had serious training in the department since 2006, which we are trying to do now, because of code enforcement updated. i really would recommend that when it comes to the staffing level, that you give us all the support that you have from the last couple of years. i will not take any more of your time, but thank you for giving

me the opportunity to say these few words. supervisor chu: thank you very much. >> good afternoon. pamela lebron. i have a short presentation to give you. to set the stage, when we were here in 2009, we had just cut 25% of our staff because of the sharp decline in construction activity. it is now 2012 and construction activity has rebounded in terms of the number and complexity of permits. as you can see from the graft, our permits continued to grow. we also have been deputy director of permit services, who can answer specific questions. right now we have 5200 units being checked. we have huge, large projects

that have had to go into hibernation during the problems with the economy that we have had. we have had a rebirth and are working on those. we do need additional staff to keep up with the increased volume in energy building conservation. the staff includes engineers, inspectors for plan shack, and care professional permit technicians. an increase in temporary help is requested to allow timely review as new staff are hired and trained. once trained for that second year, we will reduce the amount of temporary. in terms of inspections, we have also seen an increase in the

number of required inspections. this also increases as you have larger projects. obviously, there are multiple types of inspections not on the smaller projects. we are also increasing the number of emphasis on code enforcement. additional staff is required to keep up with the volume on the new regulation and high-rise building. as i mentioned, code enforcement throughout the department. this includes building inspectors, electrical inspectors, and plumbing inspectors. we are also requesting an increase in temporary housing over time to allow for the completion of all our inspections in predominantly high-rise buildings until the staff are hired and trained. the overtime will be covered in the fiscal year 2013-2014.

the mayor's proposed budget includes additional resources for departmental support, including staff for mis, records management, and payment personnel. in terms of records management, there has been an increase in the buying and selling of buildings, and approximately 70% of the research required to produce requests is done manually on the nine databases. we are beginning a digitization process, using the manual research. we are also trying a number of other ways, including the use of overtime, to reduce the time required to produce a report from an average of 14 days. 11 days for records.

back to the historical level of five days. we are also dating the information technology equipment run, which includes the storage infrastructure, software, and network. we are adding staff with different skill levels to the new environment. we are also proposing to shift funding from the work order to staff personnel functions internally. this has been discussed in the dhr budget. this shows the changes in revenue. when we prepared the budget, we projected an increase in revenue of 5%, with another 4% in 13-14. over the last six months, we have seen a significant increase

in construction activity primarily due to large projects. be expected levelling off of large projects in 12, 13, and 14. we are confident, barring another deep recession, that we can achieve revenue projections. supervisor chu: guinea's quickly speak to those large projects in the pipeline? >> good morning, supervisors. in the deputy director of the department of building inspection. ctmc a arrived at our department last friday. one hand is over the 10-year, with 50 to 60 projects. construction costs are about $3

billion. then there is the number of units over 5000. any specific project you want to ask about? supervisor chu: generally, what are the big projects in the pipeline. are there any recent ones that we have passed? you said you had 60 cases, ones that are over $10 million. >> right now, we are doing the real on that, with the market in construction. still, they have an architectural addendum that needs to be approved. and then lots of it in the mid-

market. 99 street. i have all of those. i can give you a copy. supervisor chu: that would be good. thank you. >> when you look at expenditures, they have grown from 2009-2010, to 2012-2014. in the 13-14 budget, there will still be 3.5 million less than 2006-2007. we are trying to do this in a controlled, logical way. supervisor chu: when you talk about that, i can even remember a situation where dbi had to lay off a ton of people because

there were no projects, there was a recession. now we are seeing in uptick back to where the projects are coming through again. are you conscientious of hiring to a certain level to account for knowing that we may come back down at some point in time? >> yes. we are trying to use as much as possible to kind of equalize, so that we are not growing too fast, so that we can see how the future holds. based on listening to the report from the comptroller's office, i think that our reasonable projection in revenue will keep us down. historically, we have received more revenue than we budgeted, but we are trying to keep in

terms of a realistic type of fte talent. -- count. looking at the way we are organized to make sure we as -- we are as efficient as we can be. sueprvisor kim: on the conversation, i heard from president mccarthy kind of, but seeing the surplus, what were the challenges to that hiring? >> there were two areas that were problematic. >> it takes a long time for a requisition to be approved through the hiring process. this was approval from the mayor's office and d.a.'s shark.

even though we had a larger problem, where we had to wait for the tax to be complete for the clerical division, it was not complete until the end of this year. we had to wait until those were published and approved by the unions before we could hire those positions. then we had a significant number of positions that required city- wide testing methodologies run by the department of human resources, or position-based testing, which will be -- the department of human resources.

and without having any opinion available for them to use in not having the city go with provisional staff like in the past, we've put in a requisition for our clerks in november. we just made offers two weeks ago. that is what makes this substantial delay in salaries. we are working on a hiring plan to work with the budget analysts office, to take into account and they are to complete their with people hired at that point in time.

like 2006, to dozens 7, we were in a downturn. we could bring everyone back where there are inspectors and engineers that require a test. we just hired six engineers they will be used in billing inspection. that is the challenge -- challenge. we have been concerned about --

supervisor chu: we have been concerned about the backlog. it is incredibly important as a rule and duty that our city to protect our constituents. specifically around hiring in that area, what can we do with housing inspectors? >> we have at three or four requisitions already approved but the requisition process and we can be in september i

scratched my head, because we do have regular meetings will of it -- with what has become the litigation committee and what we have on our list, to make sure that it is similar. because, i do not know that we have it. 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.