>> chair: we can do that without objection. item 2. gvl(gavel) clk>> clerk calonsag: performance audit housing authority. >> chair: this is brought by a number of supervisors. supervisor campos, do you have opening comments? >> supervisor campos: i will be brief in my comments. since i was elected supervisor four years ago, we have heard from time to time from a number of residents from the public housing developments about issues involving living conditions and the housing authority developments. it is something that we have been hearing more about in the last few weeks. i actually have three housing authority developments in my district, -- dwellings, holly

courth an alameny (sounds like). there are other supervisors, and other members of his body that also have housing authority developments in their districts. i know that all of us on this board are committed to making sure that the needs of these residents are addressed. it is in that spirit that i wanted to bring us item forward simply to provide the city and county of san francisco that clear picture of how the needs of these residents are being met and we are mindful of the fact that we are talking about an

agency subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government. we know that the department of housing and urban development, hud, is conducting a nodded to see if the housing authority is comply with housing standards among other things. we know that a city we invest resources in redevelopment for instance housing authority property. one of the objectives of this review is simply to ensure that our partner, the housing authority, is in a strong financial position. and that the investments that the city is making a properly managed. the kind of review that i have in mind is a review that is consistent with how we as a board deal with the management and operations of various agencies. we as a board under our rules actually have a point of calling for different types of audits from time to time, including a management audit

which under our rules as opposed to happen every eight years or so. and when we look at the issue of when the last time the housing authority has been audited by the city, we discovered that the last time was in 1993, about 10 years ago. the item that you have before you % i want to thank my colleagues who have sponsored this item, supervisors avalos, kim and mar, basically it's an item asking the budget and legislative analyst to conduct a performance review of this agency, and the kinds of things that performance review would include would be compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws, including different practices and procedures that the city has in place.

the effectiveness of the agency's governance as well as financial controls, recommendations made by hud and other entities that have audited this agency. the audit would also look at the management of public housing resources including housing provided by section 8 vouchers, as well as looking at housing authority mass public housing and housing managed by third parties including nonprofit corporations. the audit would also as a matter of practice look at the management of the agency including looking at the management staff and other resources; and other jurisdictions. one thing that we want to be very careful about is we are mindful of the fact that the federal government,

through hud, is auditing the agency and in thinking about the scope of this audit, we have asked the budget and legislative analysts to focus on those areas where there is intersection between what the housing authority is doing in terms of fulfilling its mandate and the city, county of san francisco. we want to make sure there is no duplication of the review being conducted by hud. at some point, once we hear from other colleagues on the committee, i will ask our budget and legislative analyst to come up and speak in greater detail about this process, and about the potential items that would be included in the scope. the last thing that i would say is that, and management audit and a performance audit is essentially about simply

providing a picture for what is happening in terms of the way which an agency is serving the needs of its constituents, its residents. it is an opportunity to see the positive, to see the negative, to see the areas where there has been improvement, areas where improvement could be made if that is the case. i look forward to my colleagues on the committee supporting this item, and any input that you have in terms of what the scope of this should be. thank you very much. >> chair: thank you supervisor campos. i look forward to hearing for the budget analyst, flushing out how they would see this audit unfolding. did you want to bring the budget analyst up? >> supervisor campos: if we can ask ms. campbell? i just wanted to give my

colleagues the opportunity to say anything. >> good afternoon chair chur and members of the committee. supervisor campos did actually go over the scope that we have introduced in the motion. it's a very broad scope. at the scope that would be like any initiative of any audit. we conduct a risk assessment, where we would carefully define the scope and narrow it to what we consider the most critical areas. a couple of points about this audit. this is a hud-funded agency, not funded by the city. we have met with the government relations officer from the housing authority and discuss our working relationship. he did provide us with a copy of the information request provided by hud.

we talked about what the hud scope would be so we would be able to work cooperatively and make sure we are making the best use of resources in terms of conducting the audit. we have already begun that discussion, although abortion is not the best. >> supervisor campos: ms. campbell forgot to brought this, and glad that you brought it up. housing authority staff has been very helpful and willing to work with the budget and legislative analyst. i want to thank them for their willingness to do that. >> they have been very helpful up until now even though emotions not been adopted yet. in terms of defining the audit, how differs from the hud audit, hud has their criteria, rules, compliance procedures

that they will look at. they will be looking at financial and governance of the agency. nonetheless we would go in and look at where the city has interest. this is part of the cities stock, city residents and housing. we hope that sf, with future plans of development of public housing, -- we believe that because of the departments of public health and human resources provide a lot of services to residents of this housing, the city has an interest. we also have a prior audit. we did an audit last year in response to complaints of there were problems, referral to city properties etc. there is a relationship.

we focus on -- we know that hud would look at things within a certain level of criteria. i believe that there will still be areas in terms of the financial performance, financial policies, strategic planning, procurement -- there are many areas where we believe that there are benefits of looking more strategically at some of these areas. financial policies, we do have experience of conducting a similar audit of the last couple of months of the los angeles city housing authority, looking at their financial condition. that was looking beyond what hud would look at. we have that as a model. if there are other questions? or requests or comments? >> chair: supervisor cohen?

>> supervisor cohen: thank you for the presentation. i'm going to thank you and the front side for your thoughtful -- the amount of energy that is going to carry through this management audit. thank you very much for raising to our attention the importance of the responsibility that we have to ensure that we are providing safe, and habitable housing for people in san francisco, and a supervisor that represents four other cities largest public housing development i know well the challenges the housing authority and residents face. i left an hour and a half meeting with residents over at alice griffith; we deal with many of the challenges on a daily basis. not a day goes by when my staff or i are contacted or

personally affected -- when i consider that i have family members that stay in these developments, or when i received complaints about maintenance, and on a positive note, good news when we receive grants from the federal government to help with the sf rebuild. two weeks ago i attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony when the mayor, i am whole community got the opportunity to tour a 4-unit building. we are progressing and moving in the right direction, departing from the way we have been conducting business as it relates to our housing. it is no surprise that the housing authority has struggle with the more than 200 million unfunded maintenance liability, and

decreasing resources from hud. i appreciate the budget analyst's presentation and willingness to work with the board on this particular issue. however there are a number of realities that i want this audit to recognize and incorporate into its framework and i'm going to go down quickly, and circle back and provide you with detailed documentation. just to help shape the conversation. i think it is essential that the audit be done in tandem with hud, currently conducting nodded of the agency. both of you have stated that. it is my understanding that hud will be issuing a corrective plan sometime in march about how the agency can improve. therefore i believe that the audit should be informed by this corrective plan. and corrective action plans. any recommendation that hud

makes because -- ultimately they are the funders of the agency. additionally when the budget analyst look at the finances of the agency, it is important to keep in mind the number of programs and public policy decisions we make to improve the lives of our residents. this includes such things as the housing authority funds a weekend garbage pickup service. something my office and the mayors office led the effort of trying to organize garbage pickup. believe it or not they don't have garbage pickup service on the weekend. it was expensive to solve the problem, more than a million dollars in police services.

we have an unbelievable crime problem. how like analysts to look at the current level of recollection at the properties and make recommendations about how to improve the effort to increase. the resources within the agency. to make it plain, they are people not paying the rent. you are an analyst, you can appreciate this. when it revenue. i am looking for suggestions a humane way to address this discrepancy. i would like to budget analyst to take a look at the cost the agency incurs when moving tenants from a different property largely due to the public safety concern. it is an exorbitant amount of cost.

getting units up and ready. it will be helpful for the budget analyst to look at other housing authorities in california. supervisor campos mentioned this. very fortuitous. or other states. urban properties, section 8 program. my understanding is that we could better administer our section 8 program. i would like to hear ideas that you come up with. i want to hear creative solutions and recommendations that are informed about the work that hud is doing so that we board members can provide policy direction to the authority and also support our public housing residents and begin to address our house and challenges which is no secret.

we are facing serious challenges. i can provide you with documents that would be to everything for you. and i appreciate you, in the task that you are going to be undertaking. i do believe this is in the best interest of all of san francisco, not just our housing residents. i'm glad that you researched, 1993 is a long time. i think i was a sophomore in high school. here we are today dealing with it in 2013. i am optimistic and full of hope that we will get some tangible answers and suggestions that we can begin to implement. >> chair: thank you. important suggestions and things we will follow through. the follow-up question for you. in terms of the question before

us, it is brought in terms of the categories for the audit. abc to f. anyone alone can be a significant and large audit. i would like for you to explain how you will get it to a place where it is manageable. this is an important topic, and other audits that will be bringing back his priorities. i will like for you to narrow down the focus and in terms of timing, how much time will be dedicated, how many hours. what does that mean for the entire portfolio for the audits that we have on-site for the 2013 year? >> i like to answer all of that but the scope recommended in the motion is broad so that we could make the assessment and determine what are the highest priorities.

what will benefit the city? what can have a real impact? that will frame the questions we ask as to how we conduct our risk assessment. in terms of the logistics, and we would develop a much more refined work plan based on that, we would want to complete this by may, before the budget review in june. there is no benefit to dragging it longer than that. i am assuming that this will go to the board on tuesday, the following tuesday. we will be prepared to begin as soon as it is approved. we are already reviewing other documents. in terms of the overall audit program, we have to present to the gao shortly a work plan for 2013. i believe it will look similar to the work plan in 2012,

allocating 5000 out of the 17,000 or contract to special projects in audit. some of that a special requests from the supervisors; also perhaps 3000 hours, -- we would bring that shortly. this is one audit to be conducted during the course of the year. in terms of where we are now, we are completing today the final draft on the public safety realignment audit, submitting that to departments to get written comments.we hope to present up to the board of supervisors next week.

we have an outstanding audit on the redevelopment agency that we want to discuss with this committee. our goal is to -- the amendment is looking at 12-1500, we cannot do all of it by may. we want to discuss with you what are your priorities and help you decide what some of the highest cost and risk issues are. in terms of the work both supervisor campus and cohen talk about working in tandem with the hud audit, in some of the findings to inform this process as opposed to duplicating this. i imagine it going to this risk assessment that we could narrow the focus with intention not to duplicate some of the work done by hud, correct? >> correct. >> chair: supervisor campos?

>> supervisor campos: thank you for your comments supervisor cohen. it is important to take all those points into consideration. we welcome any additional feedback not only for members of this committee but also from members of the board. other members of the board. i wanted to get a better sense sort of what it means to work in tandem with hud for instance. one of the items that we have this compliance with applicable laws, federal, state, local. i imagine that would mean that hud is focusing on how federal law is being followed. and that for you to focus would be more than what is happening with local compliance.

is that how it would work? >> anything specific to hud, the governing agency, we would leave to them. but i say that sort of looking over not just laws, legal compliance, might be in hud's purview. we would take much more of a focus on the city's priorities. i do know - especially when we talk about policies % there are many city policies and priorities that are different from what hud wants. we would look at that and how it fits together. i say that because i think that there are things about rent collection, tenant eviction policies,

housing replacement policies that are important to the city that maybe hud has a different point of view on. >> supervisor campos: supervisor cohen mentioned the issuing of grants, purchasing, contracting. i assume policies around those issues would be things included in your review. >> that is correct. part of the government accountability office auditing standards are to consider what other audits have revealed. to some extent it is just an efficiency issue. they will be coming up with findings in march. we will be completing i work until probably . sometime after that we can look at some of their issues and say they are addressing it or, there is a city perspective on this and we want to take a step further. i had a discussion with mr. peterson from the housing authority about the fact that the housing authority said they

are not meeting their asset management program. how hud has dealt with that is to say that we are going to reduce your allocation; this is a punitive action because you have not met the strict area. he described some of the issues about them not meeting their asset management program makes me think that the commission and the city they want to say that this is the way that you should be meeting it and you could be meeting it and go a step further with that. i don't know all of the conditions. i know what he said to us about some of the failures. those are things the city could address quite easily. those are some of the areas where we might take what they do and then move a step further with it. >> supervisor campos: last thing i want to say, and i hope that you will also look at, not only sort of the performance of the agency. but i think it would also be appropriate, and i think it is very timely given the housing audit that you did last year,

how the city can also better support the agency itself because there is an interconnection between what they are doing and what we are doing. i am certainly interested in that piece as well. >> okay. thank you and final piece. my colleagues mentioned some great areas to focus on from their perspective. one area i think just to flush out that i think is interesting to me as well that would be informative is what the housing authority's financial planning processes look like, whether following best practices with regards to find, budgeting, these are things that to the extent they are successful in that arena they are able to deal with a lot more the issues that people care about, day-to-day, how our units maintain, are repairs done in a timely way.

those of things that can be strengthened if they have a firm financial planning and footing. there is a place we can look at as well. thank you. >> supervisor campos: i forgot to add, wondering if have any thoughts on this. a lot of information we get not only comes from the agency itself but we also hear from the residence. i don't know if there is any opportunity at times to hear from some of the folks that may be impacted by it in a more direct way. >> they are already calling us. there are advisory committees established by hud. one for the voucher payment program; one for the housing program. we including any work plan no

matter what the risk assessment focus group meetings, talking to the residents, because they can inform us about how effective the management is of the properties themselves. >> thank you supervisors. >> supervisor cohen: i also was going to highlight that each property has a tenant association and there is a large association, the public housing tenants association which has representative from all across the city. they have a citywide perspective and meet on a regular basis. this is outside of the commission that i'm talking about. what you are talking about is having feedback from the tenant, those persons on the ground receiving these benefits. i find it most helpful to attend the tenants' meeting on

a fairly regular basis. >> we would do that. we did the audit of the communities we did meet with a tenant association. we have already that connection. >> chair: thank you very much. without any other questions why do we open this for public comment. are there members of the public who wish to speaks? >> i am requesting to speak more than 2 minutes. i am an authority. you check your records, and you will see ace washington. you're looking at someone that has authority and knows exactly about housing authority, knows what the tenants want. the scope back to what we were talking about this history here. it is no