and if they are or if they would like a free, sort of walk through at that given time, to look around, you know, to walk with the property owner or the business owner, and so they offer that. and then, say, you know, if you do want a full free assessment or if there are d not free assessment but if you want to businesses that are in these corridors area, or in the corridor area, they can qualify for some funding to do the remediation. >> so i think that that is sort of the carat is that they could qualify for remediation and if they are interested in accessing that funding there is a form to fill out so that we have the documentation in terms

of administer the funding. as long as it is not the high level, remediation, which high level would be if there are two or three steps going up into a business. but it is lower, or, you know, maybe the entryway might need just a slight ramp or a door modification or, you know, a power button, those kinds of recommendations. then, asian neighborhood design is able to do that and that is the type of thing that those kinds of ininstruction related improvements are what can be our funding can provide. for the businesses to be able to access. >> did i... >> i think that what i am concerned about is that their approach is what do they offer? businesses are already concerned when somebody walks in or comes in and talks about

this access and i just don't want them to get nervous. i don't want them to be worried that this is going to be a big issue for them. and i mean, it is. it should be, but they should take it seriously and i will continue to and make it work able. and comply to all of the laws. and then my last question follow up to this is if the asian neighborhood designers reaching out to all of these businesses they must be collecting some sort of data and do we access that data? what do we use with all that have? or what do we do with that information? >> it just started so, i would say that, you know, that is a good point. and in terms of just the exact data, that we are collecting, and i don't know if we really sat down and articulated what that is. so that is a good question for me to follow up with. with them. and in the program

administrator. i think, we are trying the third party approach just because of the fact of even if from my office and my staff, if we go in and talk to business and we say that we are, you know, here is my card and says that we are from the city, that is just automatically just sort of creates some sort of block or wall or fear and so, i have heard from at least from the first walk through right after the express conference is that there were businesses that were actually very happy. that they felt that a little bit more comfortable. and i should not say happy, but they felt comfortable having the conversation and having asian neighborhood design walk through their business. and having a conversation. so, i think that at this point, you know, the idea is to sort of try all avenues to be able to reach out to businesses and to really kind of dispell that fear. and get them to be proactive.

and with the presentation this morning and i appreciate it. >> you showed a little bit of the two questions, one is has there been a decline in small businesses, let's say, getting and putting to violation, and i don't or have not heard, me personally, i have not heard lately and maybe it is an unfair question and maybe you don't have the answer, i am wondering with the positive moves that have been met at the state level and locally, has this been reflective that maybe there has been less... >> well, in terms of the individuals who are filing the lawsuits in san francisco, the way that some of this law is written is not or does not really apply to them. so, in some ways, the law would not necessarily mean that there would, or it is going to sort of diminish the type of

lawsuits, the only thing that it would be is if the plaintiffs do think that they are not, you know, in these situations, because if they are really targeting the small businesses which they are, then the plaintiffs are going to receive less money in the statutory damages. so that may have an effect, i think that it is a little too early to know at this point. the businesses that recently have reached out to our office that have been sued. these are suits that we are seeing that were done prior to this legislation being enacted. so, we have not yet called the filings of the federal court. which is primarily where the lawsuits are filed yet to see what has been, you know, taking a look at the volume of what has been filed in federal court. creating sb 1186. we have not done that yet. >> and it would be interesting

as we get further down the road on that. finally you showed a little bit of ap preheniveness with the $3,000 which is important money to you. >> yes. >> and obviously, 30 days yes, and as a commission we want to make sure that you get that money. >> thank you. >> if anything that you can bring to us and give us updates on how that is going, please let us know. >> what i will do is i will definitely talk to one, our investment neighbors and program administrator and asian neighborhood design to work on setting some criteria to come and report to you. and you know, if we are able to utilize any of these funding to enhance this program so that we can do more out reach that would be terrific and report back to you, part of the requirement is that we have to report back to the state on that funding. >> thank you. >> no further questions? >> thank you, once again for that presentation and in the short notice that i asked you all, so a great presentation here. thank you. >> thank you.

>> a couple of comments on item four? >> seeing none, item five. discuss on the department's staffing level in 2013, and in relation to the incoming volume of work and how it effects each division. >> good morning commissioners. we found the incoming volume of work, we see substantially increase among the work. what we see for the coming years, we will have, you know, a major project that will be coming in. it will brought to you on the next agenda item. regarding the staff, yes, in the process to hire at least 16 more vacancy, but it took a long time. because the hiring process and

then the civil service rule. we have still ongoing schedules, and all of those, you know, trying to go through those processes, you know, to hiring the staff. and the other question that we want to ask. >> obviously, it is just, kind of, we are started in the year so it is kind of, you know, the difficulties that we had last year, acting director and i know that we understand a lot of them now, but at the time when we were trying to get the staffing up, we now realize that you know, it is the civil service has a very strenuous process and i understand it. i understand that everything has to kind of take its course. i guess that the question that is important to me, as a commissioner and i don't know how the other commissioners feel about it is with this increase in volume that we have now that we are going to be taking a lot of things in and i want to kind of from a public point of view, i want the public to know that we are doing everything that we can to

have the bodies there when we take these fees. obviously, you know, you do a great job, moving around the different departments trying to make sure that those people are there to kind of get you through this period. and if it is 16 vacancies still. >> 63. >> 63. >> yeah. >> okay. >> that is a lot of people. >> and that is across the board. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> so, with regard, maybe, now not this commission, or later commission, we can start talking more about it. but with regard to check and regard to on sight inspections and with regard to the electrical departments and all of those, other departments how they or how are they doing with regard to the coping with the volume of work. >> the electrical department is first of all is the urgent one before we have get back four of the people to have temporary and in the meanwhile they are going through the testing and

get finished. >> yeah. >> i think that this week they will be trying to get to all of next week sometimes. and also, the inspections our building inspect ors we have we have finished, you know, for all of the cds and we were trying arrange for the in-house to you know, select, the building inspector. and then also that is a big thing is a couple of weeks we will have the 14 or 6 for supporting administration staff. and also have to interview also and then it will serious other you know, complication to a process going for next two to three months. >> okay. >> directors? >> do you want to add something? >> i just want to, chime in on

what the director huey was saying. >> the 3106s and the 6334 that would be the chief building inspector and entry level clerks are planning on in-house interviews in late january, early february. that is part, that is just part of it. and then when we go for the professional interviews, those people rise and then we have to get, we have to infill those positions so this will be ongoing. but we are going in the right direction, finally we have the list and that is the hardest thing to get the test get us certified and let the list and once you have the list it gets a little easier. at least we have a process and we have a list and we are making progress. >> and how are you handling the volume that you are dealing with now, particularly in your words with the plan check? >> in the last 6 months, we have had two months where we

have had about a billion and a half dollars of reviews out of door >> a billion. >> one and a half billion. >> with regard to previous years, and you do have, how would that complete? >> the previous year, before, 2011, that is when we started the recovery, but 2011 is where it really got legs. we are seeing no let down, yesterday, myself and director huey had a meeting with 706 mission, that is a 45-story residential tower and it is we are almost looking at it as a horizontal vertical addition, because it is attached to a ten-building story building. and we are seeing a big uptick in the tenant improvement and we are talking three or four or five floors at a time. and so we are showing no signs

of slowing down, as a matter of fact, the designers are telling us that there is plenty in the pipeline, and planning is busy and review before we get it. >> how is your turn around time? are you feeling pressure with regard to the plans and turning them out? and stake holders? >> well, so much of what we do is over the counter. okay. >> i am more worried about the employee burnout a little bit. i mean, they are coming at 8:00, we are averaging, what is january? it is still a little bit slow, but, when i say slow, we are still doing 120 over the counter a day. >> yes. >> and that is not including that does not include electrical and plumbing. >> right. >> okay. so, around the summer time we will be doing 150, 160, 170 over the counter every day. >> based on what you see with regard to the employment levels

being kind of slow, being fed to you, do you feel that you will be able to address these types of volume? i mean it will never be perfect obviously i am learning that. >> it will never be perfect because the work ebbs and flows, right now we are on the uptick, if we can see in february when we pick the final candidates and get them in there fairly quick before the rush hits, the rush should start happening in the next few weeks, and it kind of swings upward as close to summer as you get and it sustains that all the way until thanksgiving. >> okay. >> the fact this year was a few weeks after thanksgiving that it finally showed signs of curtailing a little bit. >> that is kind of the big difference between inspection service and plan check does not slow down for as long as inspection service. >> commissioner a question for you? >> yeah, you know, i guess, we have been talking about this for the last six months and i'm

worried that i don't see, you know, a plan, moving forward that seems dowable. we heard from mickey who was very affable. two things worry me that i have definitely seen an increase in the work load at planning and it is coming our way. interest rates are low. and the fed has said that they are going to remain low for the next 18 months and every developer that i know in town is capitalizing on that. and i think that we are going to see the increase that we have seen is going to hold for a while. and i do worry about employee morale. and i think that people are working their butts off and that is only sustainable for so long. once you hire someone it does take a while to get them to learn their job. and that taxes the existing staff even more for at least a

little bit before things get better. so i am wondering, if we can come up with some way to maybe borrow staff from another department? to do just hr-related issues of, you know, you know, the stuff that needs to happen. you know, the first cut-off you know, the first interview. and if we can request to the hr department to do the same, so maybe, the sign on the temporary basis, a couple of folks, to just help us get through. because the other issue with hr that i am familiar with is that that list is only fresh for so long, right? once you have that list, and it is 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, a lot of folks on the list will start moving on to other jobs or we will take advantage of other opportunities and then you are back to square one. and so i am worried about the timeliness of all of this and the impact on the department. as well as the impact on the

general public. >> yeah the list that we developed are good for a year and we are extend it for one year, so the big hold up is to get the tests. i wrote the building inspector senior and chief test and tom did all of the engineering test and that takes a long time. you also have to get together with human resource and she is a very good person and she kept us kind of focused. we did things call ksa and don't ask me what it means, she asked a lot of questions about what we expect that american to do when they get there, what skill sets, and she uses her expertise as saying, yeah, at the end of the process, for instance, she was she had a couple... she had certain questions and we have to include these. so it is give and take back and forth. but we are through all of that and we should be fine for the

next year or two as far as human resource is concerned. as far as training people. you are right. it is going to take us quite some time, usually inspection service, when they come in, we will put them in the easier districts when i say easier districts that is single family wood frame, for instance, around ocean avenue, suncrest and, richmond district. they can get up to speed quick on that because they are looking at the same projects over and over again. we are not going to stick a brand new person down downtown unless this person comes from another jurisdiction and he shows that he is extremely competent. at plan check it is a lot harder because it is much more by the book and it is technical. and we will instruct him on the larger project and we will assign him down the duty down the division to get boned up on the inspections. and usually when we hire them. they are in the middle of

getting certificates, and so they are pretty well up on the code. it is just the common sense of how you apply the code to that customer in front of you. >> what does that code actually say? what is your parameter? s what is your limit? and the new people of course, are always having to check the resources where our more experienced people are saying, yes, that is section 701 and that is this. and they can cut through it a lot faster. but i think that since we have those lists, i feel confident that we can keep drawing off of them if we have the openings of the 60-plus people, i think that we can have them in a chair in the next couple of months. it is just right now we have been sort of borrowing from code enforcement and borrowing for technical service. and we have to get those programs up and running, and running quickly.

>> director? >> yeah, commissioner... actually, we last year, we already realized that there is a big, you know, lots through the pipeline, and that is why we have presume to the commission, you know, beginning last year, with all of the major projects and outline what we need. and lucky that we have, the commissioner helped us to get, you know, four or five of those engineer coming in right away. and to help us. meanwhile to address or in sure that we have them from the department. and it is not efficient that way. you cannot get them from the street to do it right away tha. is mike me trying to get those

people behind me, jet mar and those actually... and then we have these realized that those people don't come here and after a few months they are starting to have more production. >> and i didn't mean to borrow, plan checkers and staff. i meant, specifically hr. so folks to do the interviewing, the reviewing of resumes and sort of that. >> if they already did that. >> okay. >> they did a good job, serious, a very good. and a particular person. very precise. however, sometimes i am pulling my hair and, why you are asking me so many questions? we are trying to do that. and we have all of the questions ready, and we need to set up the panel and then for you, and then they realize all of those lucky, you know, we have to cooperate together to try to get it done. >> thank you. >> deputy director i know that you want to weigh in here.

>> yes. >> director administrative's services i want to give you an idea of where we are right now. we currently of the 7 vacancies we can only fill 49 of them because of the attrition level, what are we doing? the 49 equate to the 63 bodys, okay? and so i have a really aggressive plan that i am meeting with the hr tomorrow based on initial plan that they gave me of their testing and developing exams and getting us lists and the majority of our positions right now, are where we have to actually develop position-based testing, which is similar to what we had to do for some of the engineers, and for the building inspectors, we do have a person that is

unfortunately a different person than we were dealing with because she had to return back to pec, but we have a person that is there as a senior, and her manager, are very engaged with us, to make sure that we can get these positions filled. that we have so that when we get to the end of this fiscal year, again, this is aggressive, but when we get to the end of the fiscal year, we will end up just having the amount, a number of and it will fill all 63 of the positions let's just put it that way. but the position-based testing do require an experts that can participate in developing some of the tasks especially for the it people. the... we have a lot of clerks that we have created a new

classification for. and we are doing developing those position-based testing for those and basically we have a person full time. and so, what i as i said, i am meeting with them tomorrow, trying to, you know, somehow rather reduce the amount of time that it takes hem to end up being able to give us a list. they are, the other thing that has happened s that the mayor's office changed the policy, in january, first, effective january first. that a lot of the positions will know longer have to go through this requisition committee. that was cava and cal ahan and there is a third person who is the director or the budget director. and so, there is more of an ability for our budget analysts to get those positions approved in terms of requisitions. >> again, i'm on the phone with

this guy, sending him e-mails and staying on top of this the best that i can. and i think he realizes that we do have this necessity, he also has planning as one of the departments. so he is kind of hit from both sides, on what the activity is. >> thank you, looking forward to seeing those numbers by the end of the year. >> great. >> all right. if there is... >> okay. >> any public comment? >> item five? >> i believe that there is. >> seeing none. >> there is. >> there is? i am sorry. >> good morning, commissioners, i just want for say that what i found and i realized that we are short on staff but quite frankly, the inspection schedule in two days and so i think that it is quite good considering that it is cold today and we have inspecters for friday and monday and a

holiday and one is a plumbing and the other one is a building. so, it has gone quite well, introducing the staff as sort of low and, what i am really pleased and i think that you will hear this a lot from the other people is the management is putting up three-hour reports now in four days rather than ten and that is really excellent. i got, the other day goals in three days even. so it is a great job, so just..., thank you >> thank you for those updates. they are helpful. >> next speaker? >> seeing none, madam secretary? >> item number six, discusses and possible action to award a contract to executive search firm to assist in the building commission in its hiring of permanent director and direct staff to work with the human resources department to final lies the contract terms and issue said contract.

the three firms are a lie anssinger, bob murray, and ralph anderson and associates. >> this is take two, we were trying to do this last month and i did not read my minutes. or i did not read my agenda items and i left out the fact that we had to take an action on this. so we are back here. we had a detailed discussion, obviously commissioner walker was not here and so if she wants to weigh in or if you have questions on this. but, not to leave the conversation but we are leaning towards one that we want to vote on. >> i think that the three, top choices any of them would be fine, i personally have experience with bob murray and associates who helped us the last time ta we went through this. i think that all of the, especially the top two, that i

think, people are talking about, have experience with planning and building officials which is critical because those relationships will give us a wider reach in candidates. so that is really keep for me for making sure that they had connections in the industry that we are trying to look at for candidates. do we need further discussion on this? i had said that if she wanted to recap on what ted had said particularly for commissioner walker if not i would like to call one of the i would like to call for one of these to approved here, which the one that i am calling for is alliance and a vote for that. >> i second the motion. >> that is a motion. >> so, we had a second on that. >> okay.

>> and do we have to do public comment on that before we vote on it? >> yes. >> there is a motion, by president mccarthy and a second by commissioner melgar to select alliance resources. is there any public comment on this item? >> with no public comment, i will call a roll call vote. >> president mccarthy >> aye. >> commissioner clinch? >> yes. >> lee. >> yes. >> commissioner mccray? >> yes. >> commissioner melgar? >> yes. >> commissioner walker. >> yes. >> motion carries unanimously. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> item number 7, discussion and possible action of the proposed budget of