into our building. because we are a multiple floor and how to make it efficient, i asked pamela to see if anything around and she's still looking into it. unfortunately once that news is mis involves one person, pass away two weeks ago, and then they are short staff there. >> maybe next meeting we could have an update as to what the thoughts are around that. >> okay. >> right. tom, i'd like to also add that the cumatic is also dependent on the higher the 1406s, the directors for the cumatic. and that's what we lacked the last time and that was one of the big failures we had, is people did not know where to go. or how to get there and until we get our 1406s in place and trained, it's going to be kind of hard to implement that.

>> okay, great. thank you. >> is there any public comment on the director's report item 7a through d? commissioner comments? >> seeing none. >> seeing none, item 8, commissioners, is questions and matters. 8a, increase the staff. at this time commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices and procedures which are of interest to the commission. >> i don't have anything right now. >> any of the commissioners before i get going? it was mentioned earlier there was a delay, building inspection head came up here. i think it was four or five of them, six of them -- six, yeah. i just want to put it out there. i found it very interesting and

i found if very informative to see they have the same growing pains we have here. obviously it's a different lay of the land and they approach inspections and things differently. a few things that came out of that i was kind of interested in, one of them was their -- they had some blight, how they handle the blight issues there, boarding up of properties and so on and things. without getting too far ahead of myself not knowing and not knowing if it's going to be a fix here or something that would work here in this city. i was wondering if staff, whoever would want to take it on, could find out what their policy was on that and maybe we could have a chat or discussion on it and see if it's a possible fit for up here in the city. it struck me as a very kind of matter of fact way of dealing with some of these blighted properties in a kind of not as expensive way of having to go through the city attorney's office and so on, thing in some

of these cases. it would be a good first step. i don't want to get ahead of myself because i don't if it's a fit. it struck me as a good policy. in talking with the bureau chief, who is robert steyn beck, i believe, he said it was quite successful down there. so, with that i kind of would like if maybe we could work on something like that and staff can get hold of me off line and we can talk more about it and see if it's something. commissioner walker? >> just, i wonder if we can -- i think when we talk about our notice of violations and the open cases, we ask for a periodic report back. so, maybe at the next meeting we can revisit the notices of violations and get an update about how we're doing, getting rid of some of the stale cases. i think it's probably going to look good, but it would be great to be able to do that. >> any more comments?

seeing none. >> item 8b, future meetings and agendas. at this time the commission may discuss and take actions to set the date of a special meeting and/or determine those items that can be placed on the agenda at the next meeting and other future meetings of the building inspection commission. the next regularly scheduled meeting is october 17th. >> that's fine. >> okay. is there any public comment on items 8a and b? seeing none, item 9, review and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of july 18th, 2012. >> is there any friendly amendments to that, no? okay. >> you approve? >> second. >> is there any public comment on the minutes? * move to approve seeing none, are all commissioners in favor? >> aye. >> are any opposed? then the minutes are approved.

and we are going back to item 2, president's announcements. >> thank you, madam secretary, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. just a few president's announcements. once again, the dbi staffer christopher victoria of the ventral permit bureau got a letter of recognition. so, well done there. obviously for those, most commissioners would notice, our condolance and heart felt sympathies to commissioner colleague dr. mccray for his recent loss of his father, mr. james mccray, senior. we in honor of him would close today's commission meeting in a moment of silence ask in honor of mr. mccray senior. on september 11th, i joined acting director huey deputy sweeney and chief henchon as we sat with six top staff from the los angeles building department

who visited san francisco to learn about our procedures and code enforcements and inspects and plan review we discussed earlier in the last item. * inspections at the recommendation of acting director huey, we will be establishing a new committee to recognize and award outstanding dbi employees on a quarterly or annual basis. an initial organizational session was held yesterday and i was there. vice president mar was there. i was pleased to be part of this new committee. other members include emilie morrison and jeffery mar and bill strawn. it was a good discussion and as i joke with bill in good fashion, we find issues we want to address first before we can agree on it. we'll have another meeting and the goal here is to have this program in place here starting next year and do it on a quarterly basis. i think it will be a very, very good policy to have in place to

recognize all the -- particularly the people in the dbi family who are doing a great job and recognizing them on a quarterly basis. finally, a reminder that this afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. which i was correctediervier, there will be a special meeting on the joint disability access subcommittee and access appeals commission in room 2001 at 1660 mission street. representatives of the national elevator manufacturers and consultants will be presenting prototypes of their equipment for disabled and nondisabled persons. i hope to attend that meeting, swing by. on saturday, september 22nd, dbi staff volunteers will respond to questions and provide outreach information at the annual sunset community festival from 1 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the west sunset playground. this is at 39th and/oring at the a and it's next to the oring

tega branch library. * it would be good if commissioners could show up for that. dbi staffers will also be there at this year's castro street county fair, the old street festival in the city. -- oldest * this event is october 7 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. finally department of public works has just announced one of the chronicles most experienced and most respected reporters rachel gored enhas accepted dpw's offer and will join public affairs. great catch. great to get somebody from the other side of the press. with that, i have no more announcements, madam secretary. so, next item, please. >> okay. is there any public comment on the president's announcements? seeing none, item 3, general public comment. the bic will take public comment on matters within the commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.

[inaudible]. >> before we start comment, i just want to read into the -- members of the public may address the commission on items not appearing on the agenda for a period of time not to exceed three minutes. speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department personnel. thank you. good morning, commissioners. my name is spencer gash. i've been a building inspector for the city and county of san francisco for 22 years i've been a resident 32 years. i'd like to request all persons who had a bad experience with this department to come to the meetings and let the commissioners know about the problems. meetings occur the third wednesday of the month in city hall room 40 16 assuming the president doesn't reschedule the public comment for some other less usable time, let's say. i'd like to read a further prepared statement. folk, i don't want to be here. my presence is a direct result

of the persons who are allowing the mismanagement of the department of building inspection, that's you. racism, i was here last month stating the facts. you are now after multiple notifications continuing to foster and condone racism in the department you oversee. this exists in hiring, promotional opportunities, job assignments and exhibits itself in other ways. i would like to -- you to make efforts to stop it immediately. in spite of the city attorney's foolish and erroneous opinion that you need to do nothing about my complaints, you are responsible. i suggest you seek outside counsel regarding your responsibilities and liabilities. the statistical evidence of the charge of racism is that according to current organization chart. civil structural engineering class of dbi 80% chinese ethnicity, remaining include vietnamese and filipino sympathetic to the chinese leadership. the first white engineer was hired two months ago. other racial disparities could

be found. should we look? topic of official misconduct. i would like to address a larger problem. discussion of racism you refuse to do anything about, the larger problem is the lack of written authorized direction to staff. for the last four plus years there have been no such documents produced by our management. once again, how can this commission allow a department to exist with no written and authorized policies and procedures? how can you allow these persons whose actual title include the word director not direct? once again a director has not issued directives is committing malfeasance at the level of misconduct. the lack of written direction for a lengthy period of time has resulted in complete confusion in that department. from operating by word of mouth only. should this department become criminal or operating in a criminal manner? regardless who hughey and sweeney have to go. the complete lack of written policy are a symptom of the real problem at the department and at the monthsv. let's not forget the mayor. the real problem is you and the mayor condone this pathetic

situation * with the willful lack of oversight. you have allowed these people to get away with so much for so long they're starting to believe their own bull sheet that they can get away with anything. you ask they are wrong. i'll see you next month. thanks for listening. >> any further public comment? >> the next speaker. commissioners, good morning, my name is robert davis at the bayview. and i'd like to ask to bring up some topics. i have some prepared notes. one is an emergency demolition order that was signed by the acting director back on august 7th for property located at the corner of thornton and 3rd street of the bayview. the owner has done nothing and the 30-day period is past. the next item is 48 01 3rd street, which as you see in my notes was the subject of a lien. went to the board of supervisors. it was taken off of the lien list because alan davidson from this department or the dbi said

receipts have been received and the fines have been paid, but no receipts actually have been forthcoming from the department showing that the fines have been paid. i'd kind of like to clear that up. thank you for mentioning that, open directors hearing, thank you for that also. key matic, i appreciate you mentioning that. i have a easy solution for that and i offer to show commissioner lee did have a look at that. it seems to have gotten nowhere. and the last thing is 18 81 oakdale just to refresh your memory, this is a property that i think about last year in november, about four months later had a fire. about 30 people were displaced including men, women and children. fortunately nobody was injured, but, of course, being displaced is a certain kind of injury. and the building just needs to be knocked down. it needs another emergency demolition order, i believe. it's just been on the radar for too long and too many people

have inspected it. too much has gone on and there's been no action. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> can i just say -- >> not in public comment. >> i'm just asking if we can get a response from the director -- >> we'll finish public comment and then -- yeah, go ahead. hello, i'm carl shier. i've been working on a project on 17th street for two years. we've been trying to get a permit. this permit has zero issues. we still do not have a permit yet. i sent letters to the department heads certified, even to the commission, you folks as well, pdf files. as of this date i have not received any response and these were sent out last spring. we're just trying to -- actually you talked earlier about derelict buildings. as a brief history, this

building has been vacant for 15 years. and, so, it's just a shell of a building. we've been trying to kind of rehab it, actually move into it as a home. we've had zero help from the city, zero. * in fact, it's been a stumbling block every part of the way. i'd like to ask your assistance into looking into this and somehow have some response, have some accountability from the department. your help and assistance would be greatly appreciated. thank you. >> would you give the address? it's 4388 17th street. >> 43 -- >> 88 -- 4388 17th street. and what's on the plate right now is when we purchased the property, it was actually held by the city. it was a probate sale. the house was so bad that we wanted to secure it. and, so, we were immediately

hit by the city with fines from the previous owner, which was the city. we got a permit and now we got a permit to do more work. we now have two permits that are intertwined and we can't close out the first permit because it's attached to the other permit. and, so, now what we've -- we have an order of abatement for the first permit even though there's nothing we can do to close out the first permit. so, i'm going to be back hooer in just a few days for an abatement hearing for that. * here and i have not been able to talk to anyone about this or get any communication whatsoever. so, again, your assistance, any possible way, to have some kind of communication from the department, i'd appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. is there any more public comment?

[speaker not understood]. the previous speaker made a reference to 48th and 3rd street. that address was sent to the board of supervisors lien cycle. that is a common practice and procedure where if a property owner appears at the board, the borden courages the department to work with the propertd quite pulled from the calendar. now, when the address is pulled, it's not that the fee is waived. the fee is still outstanding. but we work with the property owner. and if it's not paid during the following year, it is on the calendar for lien for the following year. so, just like to clarify that. as regards the speaker before that, once again i'd like to distance myself from that speaker. i don't like to have any

association with people that spoke, you know, something of a negative nature. i'm with the department a long time. i work with a lot of different individuals, different backgrounds, races, you name it. and, you know, we're all very proud of the department, with the diversity we have and how we all get along, and how our diversity is a strength because in working with each other we're better equipped to deal with a public that is very difficult verse also. so, i'd just like to make that comment. thank you. * diverse >> thank you. next speaker. seeing none. >> we're on to item number 10, adjournment. >> public comment is closed. >> public comment is now closed. is there a motion to adjourn? >> move to adjourn. >> second.

>> are all commissioners in favor? >> aye. >> we'll now adjourn the meeting. it is 11:50 a.m. close the meeting with a moment of silence for james mccrayv senior. thank you. we're now adjourned. [adjourned]

i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. i give a lot of tours through the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense

of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in this 317 acres. the park, as a general rule, is heavily used in the mornings and the evenings. one of the favorite places is up by the upper reservoir because dogs get to go swim. it's extremely popular. many fights in the city, as you know, about dogs in parks.

we have 317 acres and god knows there's plenty of room for both of us. man and his best friend. early in the morning people before they go to work will walk their dogs or go on a jog themselves with their dogs. joggers love the park, there's 7 miles of hiking trails and there's off trail paths that hikers can take. all the recreational areas are heavily used on weekends. we have the group picnic area which should accommodate 200 people, tennis courts are full. it also has 3 playground areas. the ampitheater was built in 1972. it was the home of the first blues festival. given the fact that jerry garcia used to play in this park, he was from this neighborhood, everybody knows his reputation. we thought what a great thing it would be to have an

ampitheater named after jerry garcia. that is a name that has panache. it brings people from all over the bay area to the ampitheater. the calls that come in, we'd like to do a concert at the jerry garcia ampitheater and we do everything we can to accommodate them and help them because it gets people into the park. people like a lot of color and that's what they call a park. other people don't. you have to try to reconcile all those different points of view. what should a park look like and what should it have? should it be manicured, should it be nice little cobblestones around all of the paths and like that. the biggest objective of course is getting people into the park to appreciate open space. whatever that's going to take to make them happy, to get them there, that's the main goal. if it takes a planter with flowers and stuff like that, fine.

you know, so what? people need to get away from that urban rush and noise and this is a perfect place to do it. feedback is always amazement. they don't believe that it's in san francisco. we have visitors who will say, i never knew this was here and i'm a native san franciscoan. they wonder how long it's been here. when i tell them next year we'll get to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the park,k, >> good morning, good morning, i am charlette shults and behalf of mayor lee, we welcome you to this occasion that we have been waiting for for six years because the mayor of paris, this occasion, we're excited that mayor delaware is here from paris, he was here six years ago and we have been

meeting every air france flight since then waiting for you. so, the occasion has now come and we are looking forward to the mayor looking around san francisco and seeing the changes that have been made. i don't know whether -- is willie brown here? he was the one who started this some 16 years ago, i think he would have turned in this beret in order to change jobs with the mayor of paris, having gone there so many times, we also have with us tom horn who is our chairman of our sister city committee which has many exchanges which we're going hear about more of them today, mayor lee, you have been mayor for almost two years, and as you know, the mayor of paris has been mayor for 11 years, and look how young he is, so there's hope for you.

we have just had a meeting inside and the mate -- mayor has made a promise which tom and i and matthew, we're going to make sure he keeps that promise and he says, next year, we're going to paris, so tom horn and i are going to be the advanced team, we're leaving with the mayor on a sunday when he goes back. so, may i introduce our mayor, a newer mayor than the mayor of paris but one we are proud of and we will be hoping that he is planning the trip very soon, so may i present mayor lee. [applause]. >> thank you, charlotte. >> well, thank you, everybody, for coming here today. as you can see, there was excitement in the air when the mayor of paris comes to san francisco and i want to welcome

him, i want to welcome the council general office as well, this is an exciting moment for me, waiting 6 years since his last visit is too long, not to renew a friendship to this city which has been historic friendship and one of the most dynamic sister city relationships that we have, i noticed in our room we have other numbers of our other sister cities, manila and gosh, there's so many, cork, and other regions that also -- and our other council generals that are here today, thank you so much for coming and frn council blats for enjoying this moment, there is a lot to be gained by our sister city and especially with paris, i was informing the mayor of my first trip to

paris, it's been my only trip which is why i have to go officially, but that was 1969 was my very first trip to pear ris as a high school student, as a high school choir of high school in seattle, we raised money all yearlong for us to go, i got to visit the jazz club along the river and then i got to hear for the very first time stevie wonder saying my shari amor in paris, look it up, that's why of course mayor dell way has invited me to be making my first official visit some time next year and certainly charlotte and tom and others have jumped on the occasion, matt and everybody else, but it is one of those

relationships that i have understood as being one of the most porn -- important in the city, one is an international status, one we hold dearly because there's a lot to learn, each of our cities as great as they are become greater as our goals of becoming environmentally responsible, creating our opportunity for our economies to fwroe and our dialog in our country is the urban cities that have to create the new jobs for the new economy. i know paris must do so as well, and if we work tokt, we can create those and instigate and innovate our new ideas for the new economy and our mutual obligations on the environment, and then there is something that paris and san francisco hold very dearly and that's an ongoing conversation about our human rights as world leade