it sits there for 5 years. there are times when people don't have the economic resources to do what they need to do. someone starts a construction project and runs out of money. someone does not have the ability to take care of their property. and obviously hoarding can be caused by serious mental illness at times in extreme situations and it's very very important that we as a city look out for folks who are really experiencing these kinds of problems in terms of our social safety net being able to go in and help people and make sure that people have access to the resources they need but at the same time when you have properties that become dangerous, that become magnets for that activity and that are causing blight on a neighborhood for years and years, it's really important that we move forward and address the situation in one way or another. so, today we'll be hearing from

representative, the department of building inspection and department of public health and the fire department and each department will tell us how they address the code internally and we'll hear why some properties appear to slip through the cracks and how many codes and cases are received and the number of relevance made and the number of cases closed. we'll learn about the departmental recordkeeping practices which is very important in terms of tracking properties with multiple complaints for the years. my hope is that we'll find out what's working, what's not working and what we can do to improve things and improve coordination and address these problem situations. with that, i would like to offer supervisor cohen

my cosponsor of this hearing. >>supervisor malia cohen: thank you everyone. it's great that you are here. this is an important topic because it affects everyday people's lives. as i told my constituents, it's not one of the most sexiest or glamorous legislation, but it's just a critical when we are talking about having an impact on people's lives and the quality of life that they are living with their families. i want to also acknowledge that certainly the last 3 years my office has been working very closely with department with dbi, with planning office and with fire and with the civil grand jury. we have been studying this for about 3 years. i will to have give a compliment to these departments and say you are miles of where you are before

at least in the open notices of violations that we've had in the city and we've had emergency demolitions and we've come a long way. i'm excited to continue to have this conversation. i think it's very important that we are not let up on the pressure or the sense of urgency on this very important topic. i hope that as a result of this hearing we'll be able to take away a blueprint for a model that we can begin to roll out for the entire city. it's critical that all of our departments are working together and not operating in a silo. i agree with you, there will be important questions asked today and i'm excited to hear some of the answers. let's get started. >>supervisor scott weiner: thank you. with that i would like to first invite rosemary bossky, from the chief house

inspector, and mr. proot, i should ask you to come. >> good afternoon, supervisors, it's our honor to give this presentation this afternoon. we have two parts, first part will be housing and then we'll represent to you by my chief housing inspector rosemary and the second part from the director. i want to address since i took over this position, we already double up our hearing for the code enforcement for housing and building. i try to address these and we are working very closely with all the supervisors trying to resolve these issues. if the emergency or whatever is necessary, the

supervisor, we are working together on all of those issues. today you will get the overview of what we have in our office and how we work to resolve those issues. for each part you can after they make the presentation, you can ask questions and then among complaints and coming to our department. thank you. >>supervisor scott weiner: thank you very much. with that, rosemary bossky, our chief house inspector. >> thank you very much for allowing us to explain our code enforcement in this office. i will have been doing this for the last 20 years. i want to commend director healey and lourey for their support for their on going

efforts in their attempts and efforts to go ahead and constantly refine this process. to begin with, the housing division in the department of building inspection deals with the code enforcement and the education of property owners principally of residential housing citywide. to do that we are organized in a way to be able to deliver the mission to make sure that the minimum standards for hazard ability for all residents in the county and san francisco for the code. this is a retro active code that deals with for minimum maintenance standard. we have about 370,000 residential units in the city and county of san francisco. about 62 percent are rental and about 72

percent of that housing was built before 1960. preserving that housing is a very important task and that is our primary goal. we want to identify life safety hazard and promote safe sanitary and function am housing. to be able to do that, the first components is to be able to make sure the property owners have as much information as possible to maintain those buildings, that means to educate them and make sure we are out there addressing meetings and talking with them anden is you -- ensuring we have the informational data and to survey their property. when it's really bad, it looks something like this. this is in supervisor wieners district. this is chaos of hoarding. the first anchor in

code enforcement is how is the organization organized to be able to respond to complaints and to be able to achieve systemic enforcement. in the housing inspection division of the dbi we have 21 building inspectors and myself. that translates about 21,000 building inspections. we want to make sure the property owners have with a they need to do building inspections. we distribute a lot of information to property owners. if we are doing a routine inspection, we give them information to see before we do the inspection. we want to make sure they are surveying their property on a regular basis and indeed the board of supervisors has required that they be looking at their property and having

an outside inspector looking at the building every 5 years. we also have our code enforcement outreach program which includes both representative of tenants and landlords and san francisco apartment association as well as housing rights committee and chinatown community development center. we have tenderloin housing clinic and the srl collaborative and chinatown and families in residential hotels. all of those outreach emphasis, those vendors work with the complaints, the property owners, the site manager and property manager and every other stakeholder to encourage if there is a violation that it be addressed at the lowest level possible so that if there is an issue with trying to get into the property to coordinate and mediate the issues that go along with code enforcement that it's achieved. we also have as i

mentioned before the landlord responsibilities to act on a way to the properties and let the property know if there is a violation and to accommodate these section. we talked about the complaint of the affidavit. how do we achieve the safe and functional housing in addition to enforcement in addition to organization, the third pilar has to do with inspection. what do we do as far as those? we do systemic enforcement and look at certain buildings every 5 years, the common areas of apartment buildings and hotels and we perform inspections based on complaints that come to us directly from 311 from other agency, from the city attorneys, from the city attorneys task force. it's a plethora of ways to come to us and we respond from 1-3 business days depending on the nature of the code violations that is alleged. in looking at the process as i said, we had

-- either complaints, it could be a systemic enforcement and we'll talk about the rest of the department for systematic enforcement are the boiler systems. there are complaints and systematic enforcement. when we get the complaint or the process is initiated, the inspector will do that inspection whether it's a contact or a name complaintor anonymous complaint we'll be able to get access through other individuals in the building or permission of the property owner if it's consensual. if there is notices of violation will indicate if there is a permit required and in some extreme cases we might initiate a danger order. and there is a time frame for compliance and

we'll do reinspection until we achieve compliance and depending upon the reaction of the property owner and i should say most property owners react and act in a timely and responsible way, but not all, but the majority do. so we will then take the case through an administrative process where we'll send it to a directors hearing where the property owner has to show cause as to why they have not complied. >>supervisor scott weiner: when you receive a complaint, this is a question i'm going to ask each department. when you receive a complaint to what extent do you check with other departments and how so to determine if a, they have received any complaints, or b, to bring them in because it may or may y not be a safety or fire code issue? >> depending on the

complaint, the housing code has an overlapping jurisdiction with the health code and fire code. if it's a bedbug complaint, we might make a report to the health department and possibly dpsw if the debris or the blight is in the right-of-way. it depends on the nature of the complaint. when it comes in we are analyzing whether or not it's overlapping with a jurisdiction. we have a plan that we use that we will e-mail to them and indicate whether or not we are taking a parallel action. right now our complaint tracking system doesn't allow to see if there is an active complaint by all other city agencies that are engaged in the code process.

i would love to see that happen but currently it doesn't have that ability. >>supervisor scott weiner: is there a thinking about having that kind of centralized data base? >> there is 311 which is a repository to some of the complaints coming into this city. i can't necessarily go into that to see that the health department may have a complaint or a fire department may have a similar complaint to the one that i have received. >>supervisor scott weiner: if you are investigating whatever issue might be, how do you or can you find out if there have been other complaints or investigations by other departments either currently pending or three or 5 years ago whatever the case maybe, do you have a way to do that? >> we do not currently have a way to do that except by clearing the department directly by 311 or within our complaint tracking system with the department of building

inspection, i can see whether electrical or building are working with a particular complaint. other than that, with the system we are developing with the planning department, our new computerized system will let us know if we have a complaint or whether there is one in the department of planning. that system will not necessarily tell us what might be going on in the fire department or health department. as i get towards the end of my presentation i'm going to be making some recommendations on it. >>supervisor scott weiner: i think that's a major gap. any department where you get a complaint, there should be a central base to get information. one more question. that is when you do get a complaint come in and you think there might be a health department issue or fire department issue or whatever it might be or planning, and you send the

communication to them to alert them, how, is there any way for you to know whether they received it, reviewed it or followed up so that you know you may have concerns of the housing inspector but you know the other departments are doing what they need to do? >> one of the things that are interesting about the major code enforcement code, the health, fire and building and housing code, planning code as well but it's dealing more with land use issues. the code that i just mentioned they were developed and meant to operate individually and separately. so there does need to be a synthesis there especially in the abatement process which i will get towards the end. the way i communicate to find that out is through a phone call or e-mail or whether it's

through a task force case, i may find out that way otherwise it's difficult to keep track of that. there isn't a good system to be able to do that. currently the department of building inspection will allow somebody to go on the city website now and be able to see whether or not we have an open code enforcement case department wide on a particular address and what the permit -- activity is. it's my understanding that it doesn't have it yet. >>supervisor scott weiner: seems to me that it's more of a centralization for the information for the department and the public and the ability of the department to know that other departments that should be involved are involved. it's incredibly important. i think it's a big missing piece where you have people from the department doing their very best but you don't have that centralized overarching code

about this property or this landlord tenant situation to make sure it's addressed. i think it's something that we should all be working toward. supervisor kim? >>supervisor jane kim: thank you, i had a very specific question but i'm going to start with a more general question now. i think a lot of questions that i hear a lot from our constituents, i think is a good discussion to have. why isn't everything just housed in one department. it isn't conceivable that one couldn't handle all to be able to do all of that in one house because i think that -- i see someone shaking their heads now. i don't understand why we can't do that. most of our constituents find it very confusing to have so many departments to go through and one follows up and one doesn't. as we try to make this work, it's not going to work. we can hold these

hearings about better communication and better -- alliance and better data but we see mostly doing the same work. >> yes, this is definitely a policy issue where there would be to be more collaboration to allow that parallelism to work and the departments would need to address that. as being very passionate about code enforcement it's sometimes frustrating for me to take the actions i need to. one of the reoccurring themes i'm seeing is the city isn't getting the biggest bang for the buck for code enforcement because we don't have the same type of documentation within all the various departments. one of the interesting things while the disciplines are different, a judge or jury are going to look at it if that's the case

going fort to the city attorney they want to see that they are all going to this particular case and the difference is what we got in code enforcement. >>supervisor jane kim: this is my more specific question. what do you do in a case where a department has decided a case has been an abated and you don't agree with that assessment. this is what i hear. i know for example one issue our department worked on was figuring out additional layers of inspection and around bed bugs which is a huge issue throughout the city but in particular in the tenderloin. i guess my question is if there is a disagreement about whether the bed bugs of been an abated or not, what was the process to get some sort of agreement on

that? >> first of all, that is an excellent question, the rules and regulation that address the bedbug are dealing with the health code, the primary code. whileey won't say we necessarily agree, the inspector saw something different. we require the pest control operator to follow those requirements setforth by the health department and i'm sure doctor will speak more on that issue. however there really isn't a synthesis in the code in this particular area. they are meant to operate in that area and that may be from a policy standpoint that it board wishes to take a look at. our inspectors may have been out at that time and saw it documented differently. sometimes joint inspections are warned and because we are

dealing with different departments and different divisions, that is not always available. >>supervisor scott weiner: supervisor cohen has a question as well. >>supervisor malia cohen: we have all afternoon. i have nothing afternoon to be here with you. stop rushing. >> i was told 10 minutes. >>supervisor malia cohen: don't wore about that. >> thank you. >>supervisor malia cohen: we'll let you know when that time is up. one of the things that i'm keying in is the stellar system. there is multiple recommendations about this system and i have heard about it for three years. when is it going to be up and operational. what the heck is taking so long. how hard can it be? you can address them in any order. >> i will tell you that as one of the managers, we've been

spending a lot of time committed to getting this up in total because you are looking at a permit tracking system, a complaint tracking system and a major data transfer of data from the existing complaints tracking system and permit tracking system, socio these are huge records, probably 3 or 4 projects in one. >>supervisor malia cohen: how long have we been working on this project. >> the director is working on that. >>supervisor malia cohen: i know that you have been working on this project. >> i have been working on the -- project now. my inspectors go into the field and have to take notes and post a code of violation and put it into the system. what i want out of the system is that they will be able to go in the field and post it on a tablet and be instantly able to download and it's there and when they come

back they will have that information on the tablet. that's what i'm in the process of testing. >>supervisor malia cohen: let me back up. how long have we been implementing this? >> i believe it's around two years. >>supervisor malia cohen: i know you have this answer. >> good afternoon supervisors. first of all everybody anxious to get the program roll out, but we have few issues there because the code enforcement part we are leading the nation, no other department have our complicated system, but sarah's group tracking the group pretty well. the code

enforcement >>supervisor malia cohen: how long have you been working to implement stella? >> first of all we try to launch it end of march, but after we find out there are lots of issues we got in the code enforcement we will have a delay on it. also because i think in time everybody suffered the same thing, the it people hard to find. instead of having two more it, we are losing three more because of the housing crisis or other from the outside consultant trying to hire more. >>supervisor malia cohen: how long have we been working on implementing stella? >> the press release when the contracts were signed were october of 2011. in october

it will be 2 years. about that. >> roughly 4 years. >>supervisor malia cohen: 4 years. okay, now we have a relationship with a vendor that it's already been created. now we are in the implementation stage, testing. i agree, we don't want what obama went through with obamacare. this is just as important. we are testing. when will the testing stages be over? >> it's my understanding from a meeting that we had recently the testing is about the next couple months and looks like this is going to roll out sometime towards the end of the spring. >>supervisor malia cohen: okay >> at least that is what it is right now depends upon what happens with the testing. there are a lot of features that we wanted to provide

including greater transparency so the citizens had not only see the summary of the activity, but also be able to see the notices of violation online and the information from the department of building inspection and department of planning. it takes a while when you are dealing with a plan that you have to mold to your particular environment. this is one of the larger jurisdictions as far as the complication of the type of code enforcement process we have. so this was not an easy situation to actually map this out. but, in any case, i have very good view of what's happening with it and i'm very encouraged by what i see, but it does take a while to make sure that every part of this process is within that system and we have fields for everything that we've captured

now that we'll be able to do the data transfer into the stella environment. it will take a while and the staff will need to learn how to use it. the mobile office in the features in the field, it's very powerful as far as that is concerned. i'm very much looking forward to it allowing my division to be much more efficient and transparent. >>supervisor malia cohen: thank you very much. >>supervisor scott weiner: i know we gave you your time limit and we have questions. that's okay. it's very important. i guess the question is and i will say i think you referred this before at a recent, a very extreme order situation in grand view avenue in my district where there was very limited egress and ingres and in my view and the fire department's view a fire hazard to the neighborhood and different departments have been out there and nothing is

happening and it's very frustrating situation meeting in my office and ultimately we got the guy out of there and there was alternative housing for him that was safe and sanitary and i want to thank you for that. it really did point to the challenges around could -- coordination and different departments go out there. so, i know we will consider legislation whether it's around the code itself or about coordination. but how do we coordinate because you have in a very sort of mandatory and consistent way because we have all of these coequal departments. the departments don't manage each other. how do we do that? is it the city attorneys office code enforcement that takes coordinating managing role, is it the mayor's office, i just, i would like to understand how we can do that because otherwise we are going to

continue to have this very decentralized approach that fall through the cracks. >> that required organizational changes through department and also require legislative changes to the abatement process within each one of those codes. in this particular instance one of the departments was looking at to whether or not there should be a joint emergency order and the problem we are faced with if we are issued that by the department of building inspection director, the chief fire marshall and the director of public health, one of the problems that would come up with, whose code abatement process would be the one that would be followed? because whether you are issuing any kind of a notice of violation or emergency order or whatever, there has to be