Skip to main content

tv   [untitled]    June 19, 2013 3:00pm-3:31pm PDT

3:00 pm
they produce some amazing things. wanted to ask you for clarity around your budget for books versus e-books versus physical books. what have the changes been in those particular categories, increase, decrease? >> the e-books increase about 27%, but overall it still remits a considerably smaller percentage of our overall materials budget, 10.5 million. so, the bulk of that is still for print materials, the books. but there is an increase that we're proposing for in our budget for e-books, databases, which is high demand. i mentioned that there's almost a 65% increase in the demand for e-books. e-books now represent in terms of circulating like a given branch on a given month the same amount of material that go
3:01 pm
out if you would look at the e-books, that's what it would represent. so, we have to put some dollars on that. but it still represents a fraction. it's about 5% overall in terms of our circulation, but we are putting more money into it. >> and the other question i have is that for the actual physical books, was there a change or increase or decrease in the budget for -- >> there is an increase. >> okay, for this current fiscal year? >> that is correct. the increase if i'm not mistaken is about $500,000 overall for the materials budget from this current year. >> okay. the other question i have was are you able to -- because i don't think there is anyone standing at the door counting the number of people that are going into the libraries, but how do you keep track of that information? sometimes i don't always check out a book or interact with the folks at the desk or sign in. you just walk in, you're able to use the facility, sometimes you take things in, sometimes
3:02 pm
you take things out. are you able to capture all of those numbers of all of the people who are actually in the libraries, actually utilizing the space? >> in some cases yes, because literally we have counters as you go in and out of the facility. in other cases where we don't have that, we have certain times where we do a random sample. so, we keep those figures and they're pretty accurate in terms of the numbers that we have. we actually use that, those counts to determine our overall visitor count on an annual basis, but we did more than that in terms of determining the hours. we went back. as i said, we have surveys. we had the one on one interviews, et cetera. so, it wasn't just the number of users, but also broke it down by hours, peak hours. so, we have all that data gathered through the controller's office and through a consultant that actually helps us. ~ develop that. >> thank you. i'll just say that i really
3:03 pm
appreciate a lot of the initiatives the library has taken on including the literacy program for adults. and just -- there have been a lot of innovative programs over the years that didn't exist when i was a kid. and, so, i do think that with the changes, the capital improvements, the increase in programming, the increase in changes in technology that were definitely headed in the right direction. so, i'm really excited about the current status of our libraries in san francisco, but also the future. so, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, colleagues. any other questions or comments at this time? okay, why don't we go to our budget analyst report from mr. rose. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee, i would point out on page 28 of our report we have commented on file 1305 39, that's item 5 on your calendar. this ordinance would revise various fees as shown on page 28 of our report. we recommend that you approve
3:04 pm
that ordinance. and on the other related legislation, file 1305 44 on page 29, that's item 6, we also comment on that ordinance which establishes, as the librarian has mentioned, a public library gift fund. we do recommend that you amend the ordinance to require board of supervisors approval by resolution of donations in the cash or market value of $100,000 or more, and the lepa provision excluded grants to the librarian from nonprofit organizations from the requirement that the board of supervisors approve by resolution the acceptance and expenditure of such grants of $100,000 or more. and we recommend that you approve the ordinance as amended. and then on the budget recommendations on page 30 of our report, our recommended reductions total 485,420 in 13-14. of that amount, all of those are ongoing savings.
3:05 pm
it would allow an increase of slightly over $8 million or 8.7% in the department's 13-14 budget. these are not general fund reductions. in addition, we recommend closing out prior year unexpended encumbrances which allow a return of 17,2 12 from the library preservation fund library special revenue fund and the etf request fund. together these recommendations would result in 557,83 2 savings in 13-14. our recommended reductions ~ total 5,7 34 in fiscal year 14-15. of that amount 497 34 are ongoing savings and 10,000 in one-time savings. that would still allow an increase of approximately 3.2 million or 3.2% and the department's 14-15 budget. and, again, they are not general fund reductions. as i understand it, the
3:06 pm
department concurses with our recommendations. >> thank you, mr. rose. colleagues, any questions for mr. rose on his report? supervisor breed. ~ >> the question i asked before, is it possible to use our general fund allocation and allow the budget -- allow the department to redistribute those reduction in funds to meet that particular need? >> is that a question for mr. rose? >> supervisor, if i understand your question, it's savings -- should the board make savings and reductions in this department's budget those flow back to the general fund, you can program them for other uses? if that is the question, in this case no. the voters have adopted two different charter formulas that allocate specific amounts of money to the libraries. those funds can only be used for library purposes as
3:07 pm
specified in the charter. so, reductions that mr. rose recommends here if made by the board will be retained within the library fund for those purposes only. >> so, based on the specific allocation that provided to the library through the general fund allocation asking about general fund allocation? >> is there a general fund allocation to the library? >> there are two allocations to the library. there's the library -- the library preservation fund itself which is a piece of the -- a portion of our property tax collection. and secondly there is a general fund baseline which flows into that fund as well. or flows to the library as well. on the revenue side those are both numbers that are calculated, that our office calculates for each year. and then the library programs those funds and expends them in the budget. if you make reductions in the
3:08 pm
department's expenditures, that money is retained within the library purpose and can be spent in future years or can be reprogrammed by the board of supervisors for library purposes within the year. but no, it doesn't flow back or reduce the amount of general fund money we are required to provide. >> okay. >> so, mr. chairman, members of the committee, supervisor breed, just to further clarify, i totally agree with mr. rosenfield that if you accept these recommendations, those monies cannot be expended by the library until the board of supervisors appropriates those funds. as mr. rosenfield stated, if the board of supervisors has any additional priorities for the library, those funds could be reallocated for library purposes during this budget process. >> any further questions, colleagues? comments? mr. herrera? >> do you need me to return next week, i guess is the
3:09 pm
question. >> not at this point, but we will be in contact with you if we do so. >> thank you. so, colleagues, we have -- just to remind colleagues and members of the public, we'll be voting on items number a and 6 ~ 5 and 6 after we hear public comment on those items. this friday starting 10:00 a.m. here at our board chambers, so, we have a number of items before us. first we have our budget analyst recommendations on the budget for the library. do i have a motion to approve -- >> [speaker not understood]. >> can we do that without option? gulf of mexico >> so move. and we have [speaker not understood] i'm happy to hear they do from mr. rose to make sure their company and expend [speaker not understood]. can i have a motion? >> so moved. >> can we do that without option? gulf of mexico >> so moved. thank you, mr. herrera. so moved.
3:10 pm
~ gavel >> [speaker not understood] deputy city attorney. the motion that you adopted are just preliminary to indicate both to the controller and the mayor's office who are tracking these matters. and to the public what the committee's tentative plan is going forward, and it's all subject to the public comment that will be heard on friday and only after public comment the committee will finalize those [speaker not understood]. >> thank you for that clarification. absolutely. with that, let's call -- we have the law library up next. [speaker not understood]. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm going to see if this works. i've never done this before.
3:11 pm
>> mr. clerk, could we get some help with the machine? >> may we have the overhead display? thank you. >> there it goes, thank you. great. i just want to say that even though i think about myself, i shouldn't, this is my 23rd year of annual budget hearings. the law library budget is basically the same as it has been for a long time. there are no changes in positions. there's never any overtime. the only difference is what you're already familiar with which is the fact there will be a rent cost. but other than that, there are no adjustments of any note. i'm not going to go through all of the documents i gave you. i tried to make them easy to read, but i just am responding
3:12 pm
to the questions that you had. i just wanted to address them quickly and i will try to be short. so you have time for other people. but on the first page you can see that we discussed what our mission is of the law library. and the diverse groups that we assist. and we have been doing this since 1870. we are the first public county law library in the state of california. i'd like to address our key services. the first and probably most important is that we have sophisticated references that we provide. as it happens all of our librarians are attorneys. they are assisting everybody, people unrepresented in court, to people who are curious about learning about the legal system to very large sophisticated law firms that need assistance that our librarians can provide. we have a very tiny staff, but
3:13 pm
a very hard working dedicated staff. and as you can see on this sheet there is quite a number of things that we do for all of our constituents. the second very key service provided by the law library is our extensive -- lang on here. our extensive electronic collection. we provide access completely free to lexus and west law. we provide no charges to any kind of access to any of our electronic materials. and this particular sheet gives you an idea of some of those kinds of electronic resources that we have and what they're for. we provide them as comprehensive and extensive amount of legal internet
3:14 pm
database research to the public to our constituents than any of the other county law libraries in the state of california. in particular, people such as [speaker not understood] law firm practitioners, small business owners, they are not in a position that they can afford some of these very expensive databases and they are able to manage because they utilize our databases for free in the law library. another key service that we provide is particularly service for nonlawyers. i started working with the law library as a clerk when i was in law school. and at that time the demographics were such it was a very tiny percent of people that would walk in that were not in the legal profession. that has radically changed over the years. that's changed as people are unable to afford their own attorneys. that's changed as there is more media attention to the law.
3:15 pm
that's changed as the court has been cutback on their resources as well. so, very important part of our services are to the nonlawyers. we have a collection that's geared for them. they require a lot of extra assistance in terms of understanding and the law and the resources that we have. we have interactive online database where they can actually complete forms at the computers in the library and print them out, file them in court or take them with them. and, of course, we also have an extremely comprehensive california san francisco legal collection that has to be continually updated with all of the resources necessary to meet the needs of the legal
3:16 pm
information need of the people of the city and county of san francisco. we have -- i'd like to highlight the fact that we have collections that are not available anywhere else. they're frequently requested by law firms, by members of the public, by government officials. some of these include, for example, the california code of regulations, the register started in 1945. we're the only place in the state that had it since 1945. it's not online except from 2002 forward. we have the whole history of all the building codes which as you know when people are remodeling they want to take a look at the building codes that were enacted at the time when their building was built. we have a variety of materials like that that we make available. quickly, some of the other key programs that we provide are legal education programs and seminars to the public and legal practitioners which i address in my last page.
3:17 pm
we provide continuing legal education materials for attorneys and mcle format, mcle continuing legal education in cd format. we do research sharing with [speaker not understood] including the entire statewide california county law library system and we share one another with academics. we get materials that we don't have to bring them to our patrons. we lend our materials to other people so that they have them for their patrons and that enables us to save them resources. i'd like to quickly address the socioeconomic equity measures. the law library, just by the nature of what it does and who it serves, does reflect the
3:18 pm
demographics of san francisco in every way, economic, ethnic, educational, et cetera. and our resources encompass the options for various groups from materials that are for somebody who has no understanding of the law to more sophisticated materials for somebody who is getting in very in-depth research work. we're very proud of our educational programs which we have been putting on for diverse groups. some of them are geared towards lay people. some of them are geared towards practitioners. we've had two programs in the last several months presented by judges. one program is regarding appellate matters. another program which was extremely interesting for lawyers was about what the judges expect from you when you go to court. we have had programs in preventing violence against
3:19 pm
women, dealing with debt. it's programs for business owners. this is one of the parts of our work that is particularly near and dear to my heart. the one area that we would like to enhance to make these resources and all resources even more available would be to resume evening hours, which we have been unable to do because not everybody is free during the day and we'd like to have programs for them also in the evening. with respect to our budget, as i said, there's nothing that's out of the ordinary. you're already familiar with the leap situation and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> supervisor breed.
3:20 pm
>> thank you. so, there was no budget analyst report on this, but i just wanted to have a clearer understanding of the budget. i know that there are additional revenues necessary for the new building that you're moving into. but because in the mayor's budget it's not necessarily clearly broken down, i just wanted to ask about the services of other departments because that number was the one that increased significantly. >> that's in part because of the rent. we have to move out of a government building into a public building. and, so, the main increase in that is future event. the only thing we have from other departments are utilities, dt and so on. we have -- we don't have reproduction. we don't -- we have a very small amount of risk management
3:21 pm
in our budget for about $17,000 a year. that's it. and that's the extent, really, of the services provided by other departments. >> and i also notice that there is only $443 for [speaker not understood]. do you all have like a friend -- i know that you also have a lobbyist. i mean, how are these things paid for? >> the law library, when it was established in 1970 through state law, the provision was the library would be funded by a portion of civil filing fees. so, if you have a civil case in court and you're filing in court, you file -- you pay $300 or whatever it is, for your filing fee and that filing fee has different components of different things. the law library currently gets $42 for civil filing, not criminal filing. that's how county law libraries in california pay for everything. that's how we buy our books.
3:22 pm
that's how we pay for our staff. we pay for our equipment. >> so, that's a whole separate budget that we don't see? >> yeah, because it's actually -- that's our governing body, which is separate. the same legislation from 1870 provided that the law library would be readily accessible, of course, which means from that point forward until 1995 we were in city hall and the city would provide us the court. >> so, that budget is what helps pay for additional supplies, what's paying for -- >> pays for everything else. >> okay. is that budget public as well? >> sure. >> oh, okay. >> i'll be happy to provide it. >> okay, thanks. >> supervisor mar. >> yeah, i just had a question to kate howard, the mayor's budget director. i know that as naomi kelly presented this when it came to the board, the rent for the new space is going to increase significantly based on what the rent was in the war memorial building.
3:23 pm
i'm wondering where that shows up in the budget. >> supervisor mar, through the chair, kate hour, mayor's budget director. this is the -- the issue you're raising is the same one i think that supervisor breed is raising. so, if you look at the -- so, this isn't a work order, essentially. the lease payment, the rent payments are budgeted both in the city administrator's department and the department of real estate and in the law library department. so, in the law library, you see an increase of $891,000 for rent and you would see also a payment in the city administrator's department for that lease payment. that's only now because -- i mean, we had -- we didn't have a rent appropriation when we moved out of city hall to the veterans building in 1995 with
3:24 pm
the mayor and board of supervisors. when everybody came back and they were expected to come back and we did not, then they implemented that appropriation towards rent in the veterans building which, of course, was not commercial rent. so, when we moved to the new location, the, the rent will be part of our budget as is proposed here. and we're going to be in the same commercial building as health services and some of the other city departments. >> okay, thank you. >> so, while we're here, just quick update. where are we on? i know we went through a relatively tense process earlier about the space and so forth. where are we with the litigation right now? >> the situation was -- and i'll ask that you not kill the messenger, but the situation was six months ago there was no place determined -- there was
3:25 pm
no -- nowhere for us to go. and, so, regrettably, even the library tried not to do it, we filed suit. as a result, the department of real estate's responsibility to obtain a lease and space for the library. if you've seen the lease resolutions, and also to arrange the move. so, at this time ~ the department of real estate is working with the owner regarding the execution of the lease. prior to the last board hearing on this, the law library withdrew its motion on the calendar regarding the injunction. the reason we had a request for an injunction was that we didn't know five, six months ago what would happen if there wasn't a place for us to go and where would we go. now that there is a place that's been located and the city is working on, it wasn't
3:26 pm
necessary to go forward with that hearing. so, we are working very closely with one of the official from real estate on the issues regarding relocating to that new space at 1145 markets. >> so, there is no suit pending at all? >> no. >> okay. and i imagine the legal fees associated with that were done pro bono from other folks. just want to make sure the city is not funding lawsuits against itself. >> no, it's not. >> okay. thank you for that clarification. and i appreciate your cooperation in working on that. supervisor mar? >> yes, i wanted to say thank you so much for what a great library. i know that as i've used it -- >> owe good. >> even for lexus and neck us to be able to do the legal database searches, but also just the media sources that anybody has access to ~ and the population of
3:27 pm
[speaker not understood]. i think you're really doing a good job making an accessible service and resource for people that really need it in the city as well. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> okay, thanks. we do not have a budget analyst report so, thank you for being here. >> so, can i anticipate that it most likely that you won't need me next week? >> that's right. we don't need you unless we do, we'll give you a call. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. okay, this time we'll call our fire department up. i see the chief here along with her staff. mr. clerk, hold on a second, chief. mr. clerk? mr. clerk, can we please call item number 7 with this.
3:28 pm
>> item number 7, ordinance amending the fire code to increase the fees for certain fire department services, and making environmental findings. ~ services. >> okay, thank you, chief, for being here. >> good afternoon, chair farrell, members of the budget and finance committee. joanne hayes white. i wanted to briefly go through and provide you an overview of our department's budget. we also have some hard copies for members of the committee. and highlight some of the major changes we have going into the next few fiscal years. given that you have a heavy agenda these weeks, we tried to stay on point and we have 10 slides for you. we condensed them. we wanted to try and do roll call. we have 10 slides as supervisor farrell and ms. howard relayed to us. so, we'll start with the first slide, which is just an overview of our department and -- thank you. as a brief overview, as you
3:29 pm
know, the department is responsible for providing fire suppression, emergency medical, and all hazards response to residents and visitors of san francisco. we currently operate out of 46 stations, 43 here in the city which includes trish: and the presidio, and then as well we have 3 stations at the san francisco international airport. treasure island ~ in 14-15 we are scheduled to open a new fire station, part of the new public station in mission bay. we'll be cohabitating with our colleagues in the san francisco police department. in addition to our fire stations, we operate as you know a dynamic ambulance fleet to respond to emergency medical services. ambulances are deployed at various locations throughout the city and can be moved to adapt to shifts in our dee mapped for service. the department has a number of minimum staffing requirements it must meet and the goal of the department is to do so efficiently as possible both from a financial perspective as well as an operational one.
3:30 pm
this next slide is really cramped, but we washingtonved to just do it in 10 for you. the slide on the left, as you know, is a familiar slide. we talked to you about it in april. it gives you a high level look at our budget expenditures. and as you look at the chart on the left, the department's operating budget consists of approximately 92% of operating budget costs allocated to salaries and fringe benefits. it leaves a remaining 8% to account for items such as materials and supplies, equipment, and work order services of other departments that are required to support our daily operations and core functions. the slide on the right sees the programs that our budget funds. the vast majority of our budget goes to front line fire suppression operation which includes fire and ems response as well as all specialty units and responses including our fire [speaker not understood] hazardous materials unit and [sak