tv [untitled] July 3, 2013 4:00pm-4:31pm PDT
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it position that was temporary is now permanent, 11 elect -- the fiscal year year ends in june. a lot of the building occur in the month of june and then the year really doesn't close until july, august timeframe so we'll be getting more expenses hit and we'll come back and tell you what where we are. just want to mention about our budget, the budget and finances committee heard our budget on monday,
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acting director huey gave a very good presentation in a very short period of time. we did not get affected by the budget analyst as we had in previous years. we accepted their recommendations which means we don't have to go back next monday. basically the cuts were in -- i will talk a little bit more about this. we asked for 33 cars and they gave us 25 cars and this is acceptable given the fact that we thought we would be getting additional housing inspectors for the housing authority project and we didn't. we ended up really well in terms of car. they cut some money for our promotional outreach services, but we have been paying for the over time
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associated with that in our regular over time budget so we can absorb that and still have additional money to be able to expand our outreach. they cut a small amount out of training, but that's not affected by we have been charging the training that comes in-house which we like to have happen to another area other than training because it's professional services. so over all, we did -- i'm really amazed. we had no cuts in positions and we do have a reserve on money that we put aside for ti improvements and until we have a plan and that just at the budget and finance committee which means that we can take a plan and get it through very easily. the $17 million that we are putting aside in our fund balance for
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stabilization reserve is set. we are able to do that and we also moved $15 million appropriated $15 million for capital reserve from our fund balance into our capital reserve to tie it up for facility related projects. we are doing a facility master plan, contracting for a facility master plan to look out for several years to see how we are going to house and deal with our staff that we assume that will occur as we continue to grow. so over all, i think a lot of really positive things came out this fiscal year and i think we are going to enter next year pretty
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well. we have a lot of hiring going on. housing inspector interviewers are tomorrow and as i mentioned we had some clerk interviews and we have some part-time positions to come in to help start the mandatory, soft story along with building inspectors to increase our code enforcement and i think we are doing quite well. commissioner march has a question for you. >> i was wondering, we were very happy to get back from the retirees to fill in for some of the vacancies. do we have an idea of when we might be able to get the permanent positions in to fill all those vacancies. is everything, the list available. people interviewing now which is good but i was
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wondering when we might be able to get permanent positions? >> at the current moment we had some prop f's working in housing as soon as we get the housing inspectors done we'll be staffed up and we have several prop f's. the advantage is that they come with so much knowledge that they can impart training so many individuals and that's one of the reasons why we are going to keep some of them. >> yeah. commissioner mar, first of all regarding the prop f, we actually need them to come back to help us. first of all the electrical we hire, the permanent inspectors, they want to go back to their normal
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life. regarding the inspector there is only one prop f only. he's the chinese speaking only there. probably by the time you interview the housing inspector to be permanent, after a few months training then we may ask him. it's not that easy to ask him to state and another one is like jeff mar he's only working half a day a week now until the end of june and then we have up to 900 hours. he's willing to work because we asked him to help. same as -- also chiu. it's not that many prop f. generally when they retire they don't want to come back. but by
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the time we are ready, they will leave as soon as possible. >> so, just to follow up. some of the prop f staff come back are also working in plan checking both in commission and you mentioned chiu. my understanding also because the codes have changed, we are working with 2010 codes now and as we heard from the previous speaker the 2013 are coming out soon. we want to make sure that people that are doing plan checking are up to the latest. >> for mar and chiu, they are not doing plan check. they are only doing the application meeting. they actually continue to have those. they are working on those we have all those training. all the new code too.
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>> is there anymore questions? >> congratulations on getting the budget through. you can get some sleep now. thank you deputy. >> 1100-1101 van ness avenue cathedral hill campuss - the cathedral hill hospital site is a full city block bounded by van ness avenue, geary boulevard, franklin street, and post street assessor's block/lot no.'s 0695/005, 0066; the cathedral hill mob site is on the east side of van ness avenue, between geary and cedar streets assessor's block/lot no.'s 0694/005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 009a, 0100. the hospital and mob, along with an underground pedestrian tunnel connecting the two buildings under van ness avenue, constitute the cathedral hill medical center consideration of a resolution of intent to initiate general plan amendments, pursuant to planning code section 340, to: aa amend map 5 bulk mapp of the urban design element to reflect the maximum bulk dimensions proposed for the cathedral hill hospital and mob; bb amend map 1 generalized land use and density plann of the van ness area plan in order to designate the cathedral hill hospital and mob sites as "the van ness medical use subdistrict" and increase the allowable far for the mob site from 7.1:1 to 7.5:1, cc amend map 2 height and bulk districtss of the van ness area plan to create a 230-v district coterminous with the hospital site, thereby increasing the permitted height to 230'-0", and dd amend the text of the van ness area plan to facilitate the development of a medical center at the transit nexus of van ness avenue and geary boulevard and reflect various elements of this use. this requested action is associated with the near-term projects on the cathedral hill campus, identified in california pacific medical center's long range development plan, which include, but are not limited to: aa demolition of the existing vacant cathedral hill hotel and office building and construction of a new, approximately 730,888 gsf hospital "cathedral hill hospital") with 276 underground
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parking spaces; bb demolition of seven existing, vacant residential and commercial buildings along geary street, between van ness avenue and polk street and construction of a new, approximately 261,691 gsf medical office building 'cathedral hill mob'" with 542 underground parking spaces; cc conversion of cedar street to two-way operation west of the cathedral hill mob garage ramp; dd construction of a nel under van ness avenue to connect the cathedral hill hospital and mob; ee interior renovation anuse of an existing medical office/office building at 1375 sutter street as medical office; ff various utility, streetscape and sidewalk improvements; and gg associated implementation actions. the total number of garage spaces may vary by building but overall would not exceed the lesser of 990 or 125 1234 >> if you can come up then. is that okay? just a quick introduction. we want to impart, i acknowledge mr. green who is a senior electrical inspector who is retiring effective june 29th. david, he's a city service career in november of 1987 with dtis, transferred to dpw in july of 1988 and landed at dbi in 1995. he's solar for his expertise in the energy and greenfield. he has served as an inspector for many large projects. we wish him every continued success and his well earned retirement. i believe we have a recognition for you today and would like to present this opportunity to you now. [ applause ] . i just wanted to -- dave
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green. electrical inspector soon to be retired. i want to thank this commission for this honor. the day that i was an inspector has been a great day for me. it has been a tremendous career. i have been involved in almost every major civic and large project. it's been fantastic. the day before yesterday i was at the bottom of the entrance bay terminal looking at grounding, looking at all the diameter racing pipes. absolutely fantastic. i had the privilege of going into countless residences from beautiful mansions in pacific heights down to the bungalows
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and bay view. it's wonderful and i want to thank you again. thank you. [ applause ] >> okay. we can get back on track. commissioner bill legislative affairs. we have a couple of new paces of -- pieces of legislation that we've been able to pick up some more information on. one is a proposed ordinance again from the department of public health and environmental health on controlling construction equipment emissions. we are not exactly sure what the specific details are on this yet, but dbi would play an enforcement role with inspectors going to job sites to make sure the equipment being used is met with the limitation standards were fixed. i guess we are
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beginning to get the details on that one. there is a second one also that the sfpuc has proposed as providing alternative water sources for non-potable water. our director, is looking into this. sfpuc has asked for comments. it's unclear on what they may have in mind. it's a potential with a code with what they are calling a district sharing water system where somehow people in the same neighborhood would combine in terms of non-potable water alternatives. it's not clear how that would work with the building code since it's limited to property lines. you can't cross property
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lines under the existing building code at least as it's been explained to me. in review of this, we are looking at the details on that. other pieces, you did hear from robert and the status on the mandatory retrofitting. that has now gone through a 60 day period and we are now in the process of preparing that data base distribution as i understand it. mr. chung's plan is to begin sending out those notices to the property owners in early as september. we get questions on this field budget i'm sure we have a lot more of those once those notifications are in property owners hands. i would like to report on the
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grab bar legislation there is a 30 day period to get them in, we have issued 161 permits for grab bar installations within that grace period. that's about a $50,000 fee waiver from dbi for those building permits. anyone who has not yet come in under that will now be subject to the normal building permit fees. but the good news is that we have quite a few of them installed. similarly, as you remember supervisor katie tang asked for may to be waiver month for awning replacements, again, this year according to mis we only issued 3 permits for the month of may. they will probably come back to us next
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year. it's clear that without a lot of community outreach especially on the part of the supervisors to encourage these facade i am improvements, we don't really see very much activity at least coming into us to take advantage of this incentive. i'm sure we can do a better job an hopefully we can get started earlier next year to make people aware of this opportunity. i think that really covers the one thing that you probably know the planning department recommended ended the fee referral program because of the change in the economy that passed on a 7-1 vote or 6-1 vote at the planning commission just this past week and is being sent to the board. i fully expect the board will uphold that and i guess as we have all said if we
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need it, we can go back to it at some future time when the economy needs the stimulus. that action has taken place and i think that's about everything. thank you. >> to the chair, my question was how many awnings do we think are eligible in applying for these in periods in which we wave fees? >> i don't know. i can get back to you on that. >> i just want for us to know that as we look at that for next year supporting it. >> commissioner mar? >> on the awnings, we also, i think this year waved the fee
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citywide. it would be good to know, even the 3 that came in which district they were in so we can go back to the supervisor to say at least in this neighborhood there was a couple of merchants that took advantage of it and it would be better to do community outreach. >> it would be better. yes. >> i was wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the puc proposal. i have had the opportunity to work with rain water. i think it's important to talk about this. i'm wondering what the department has asked specifically to just let them know what the violation are of the code or to help them craft it in a way that would
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eventually -- >> what i understand from the chief inspector is that he hasn't had the opportunity to confer with them. he's seen the draft legislation because we were sent a copy of it. but it's unclear how it would be implemented since it would be a dbi plumbing division time of permit and inspection and so forth. so at this stage, i haven't myself read the ordinance closely enough to know exactly what we need to do, but at a minimum it seems like a little bit more meet and confer with the sfpuc staff on this. >> i'm wondering if they have asked for help or sent it over and said you read it? >> they sent it over to us for
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comment. we may have a conflict with our building code because when the rain water comes to my area, then who is responsible for what? that's why we asked steve to look into it and talk with them, go into more detail because i'm worried when two calls in conflict there is a major issue for us and legal issue. >> commissioner walker? >> yes. i recall when we had a piece of legislation that would require permitting that might stall projects that we want to encourage and i think the the inspector came and had these concerns valid because you don't often know something draining off your property may well affect the person below you wherever it's going. so, i
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would encourage our people to work with puc rather than just have puc report to us if there is anyway for our director to talk with the puc. >> it's hard sitting through the abatement appeals board to remember that most folks do get along and then there is outliers that people that just fight all the time and that's what we see a lot of and it takes up a lot of time. when i was working on this issue as the board of supervisors as the staff person, there was a category of folks who wanted to do the urban gardens and wanted to share the resources and having rules so the conflict doesn't happen but also having those opportunities for people to do stuff that's good as they follow certain
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rules and guidelines. i was wondering what this process was and if we are being asked to help. >> i don't know how much help in terms of the general craft ordinance but the puc is amenable to us telling us if we have concerns and before the legislation is finalized. at this point we still have time because it hasn't even been introduced. >> commissioner mar? >> i would like to echo the sentiment. i worked a little bit with chief and inspector when it was about individual homes wanting to put in gray water systems. he had very good ideas and i think it would behoove us to also not own this to puc but whoever is the member of the board of supervisors that is pushing this legislation to work with
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chief plumbing inspector so he can help craft it to make it easy for the home owners whether they want to put in individual systems or if there is a collective system. i think that was a little bit more complicated. but that the codes are very clear and also the jurisdiction, the inspections are very clear. also he had pretty good ideas about the inspection process. if someone is putting in a tank how is it going to get inspected. it would help our services department. >> thank you. >> item: update on permit
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tracking system. >> good morning commissioners. i'm here to give an update on the tracking system. we've been continue to go plan for round two for testing. this round is substantial so there is a lot of coordination that is occurring and almost all of the functional groups within dbi are represented during this round 2. they are tested within a span of week three and we are planning the logistics around that. all the areas are going to be tested so this is an effort for us. also we are making progress on other levels which is configuration and automation components and requirements and the big one is fees and we are testing the fees as we go along. that's where we are. >> thank you. where do we stand with the coalition with the
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planning department dpw and it's been a while since the last meeting. where are we standing on that? >> we are continuing to work. as we are preparing for round two, we are including season -- scenarios and the fire department. so we are working very closely on this. we tap into dpw and fire as we need because their requirements are minimal compared to planning. during this round, we are going to bring folks in that are in both departments and do the test. >> that includes the assessor's office? >> not for viewing. anyone can look at it. >> question on the mobile
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devices, how many do we have and how many are out there and how is that evaluation going on in that process. when we were with munis they got too heavy for some people. >> as we stand we ordered closed to 55 devices. the samsung s 3 devices were not as flexible or as they would prefer, so we've ordered those. they will be arriving shortly. they are going to be used for mobile inspections versus the ones we tried before which are heavy and almost impossible to work with. we know they are good for recording inspection results as well as for mobile. yes. >> does it look like a galaxy? >> almost. with a bigger screen. that's recommended by our inspections.
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>> commissioner lee? >> on top of that question, when do you think our commission can get a preview of how that works and how inspectors are using that device? >> we can give the demo anytime. the inspectors who are using these devices for recording and resulting on the field there is handful. we have about 20 now with the current system they are on. that can be anytime the inspectors are ready. they can show that. >> maybe at the next meeting we can see a demonstration. >> before you say yes, be very careful. what we are asking here is for you to bring in the device and walk us through it. >> yes. >> you can be at that place? >> yes. we are waiting for the device so we can install the app. >> it's important that it
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doesn't come off -- >> right. the integration is simple. it has a log and all you have to do is punch in the password. let's say there is ten inspections and the they have to say it is an approved or failed or pass. then it goes automatically into the system. >> maybe at the next meeting, if you feel that, commissioners i'm saying this at the interest when it is unveiled that you are comfortable that it's up to date. >> i'm going to have to request seniors before i give a yes on that. >> okay. obviously as soon as you feel comfortable we would like a presentation on that. >> okay. any further questions. thank you so much. >> thank you. next item. update
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on major projects. >> good morning commission. acting director. as you can see the package regarding the major project, as you see in front. roughly 35 power -- right now. and then the amount of the project is tremendous. i have never seen that many. hopefully in shanghai right now, the amount of work even when people are asking the fee deferral they want to submit the site permit this week and next week, people are still trying to submit it. the cost of the construction, before it was
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moving up, it goes up in san francisco and if we are supposed to hire more staff then we are in trouble to get all of those permits out besides the big project. the small projects coming for permit is still constantly coming in. rental market is so expensive now and that's why we need to get the more affordable housing project. >> any other questions? >> commissioner walker? >> just so that it's reflected on the budget. i was on market street the other day and every block has a major project in process. and those of us who
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have been paying attention know that those have been an approved over the last ten years. i want to applaud everyone in our department because we didn't anticipate this, the commissioners as well and really push to hire up in these very key plan checks and it's very important that we have the staff to support this as it's going on. it would also be good to be able to anticipate the opposite which is that there may be a slowdown in the future as well. so we just have to be mindful. but certainly it's -- everyone at the department is doing a really amazing job in making sure that these buildings go up right according to plan. it's
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