and coordinate with almost every agency in the city. with the department of public health, we work with medical dispensary. and also working with restaurants and entertainment commission, places of entertainment businesses and work closely with dbi, public works, street trees and state department as well, we have worked very well with different agencies. chris ha has everybody on speed dial and coordinating and about coordination, we have our information available on property information. if you click on a property you can see if there are any open or closed planning complaints and we try to have links on there

to the department of building inspection wherew -- they have a website to look at complaints. i go often on their website for nov's on the property. that's the basics of what i wanted to present and be available for questions. >>supervisor scott weiner: the issue we were discussing before with miss bossky about there not being a centralized data base, i would imagine planning would need to look at different departments. do you have any thoughts on how we can move to more centralized code enforcement system in terms of information and data basis but also actual management and running the system? >> i think that's an excellent point and through development of the stella system that we asked about when we went to the expand ability of this,

the port uses stella, we are using a system that is off the shelf that is especially for us in our processes. right now it's going to roll out primarily with dbi and planning but in the future with other divisions within the agencies would be great. public health can use that and they would all be in one system. i think that would be great. right now it's being developed for our two agencies. i think we are going live in march, march 30th. i think we are rolling out earlier than the department. >>supervisor scott weiner: great. seems to me whatever the violation might be and you go into system if it is a more unified system and you see they also had building code issues, health code issues and this and that. i don't know,

i do think if you have folks that are repeatedly violating codes that it becomes a blatant disregard of the system and there should be a way of coming down a little stronger with some of these egregious repeat cross code violations. i think it would be helpful that you don't have to look at a bunch of different databases or make phone calls. >> definitely. right now it's manual. you are having to query a department but if you access at your finger tips, that would be helpful. i know that management is discussing having a management division which would be helpful but would have to be somewhat limited in scope to the housing and house ability issues and some of the functions of the planning department where we have such a wide array of enforcement matters to have that all

rolled into one agency that is reviewing some matters that is problematic as the planning code is amended four times a year. it's a constant battle for our department to train our staff and keep them up to date and if someone different in the department is enforcing the planning code is even more challenging. even with the department of building inspection is doing a great job to bring these things together. maybe something along those lines. reason >>supervisor scott weiner: thank you, i would like to call the fire department and then department of public health. also someone from protective services because especially with the hoarder situations that department can be very helpful. we have mitch wong our fire marshall. welcome.

>> good afternoon, supervisors, thank you for having me here today. i just want to let you know the way the fire department receives complaints is through a phone shall, letter, website or to our firehouse. letters come to the division or to the chief. we respond within 1-3 days depending on the severity or availability of our inspectors. looking with that just a little bit background,

what we find as problematic cases are tough for us in hoarding. the second would be the buildings are not complying with dbi's legal use. it's illegal in laws and public assembly. then the third thing that is problematic for us is when we can't make contact with the building owner using the tax assess or information on using the planning department real estate software, it usually uses the assessor's records. >>supervisor scott weiner: we got a memorandum from chief white at the beginning of this

hearing left here for us. i want to read you one of the sentence." " it should be noted the fire department does not have a mechanism at this time to keep data on these or progress of violations at this time "can you comment on that sentence? >> right. our oracle system was designed for us so when it was designed, those requirements weren't told to the designer and they weren't captured. we have a way to track referrals to us like the department of public health and police department, but we don't have a way to track when we send something to the building department. >>supervisor scott weiner: is there a thought to how to correct that? >> yes. with your hearing of today, that is in the works, i was going to have our it person come today, but he's bids -- busy. we have one

for the entire department. if you can see in our office, we have one for transparency and we have one that is going to involve budget and it staff because there is only one person basically that can manipulate. >>supervisor scott weiner: right, i can't comment on the technology. it just seems to me that you are seeing this as a reoccurring theme today that we want to have really good transparency, easy access by the blic and some better centralization. >> right, this has been a new issue for us and we have not had a need to address it, but we will now that it's been brought up. so the way that we move our complaints to the city attorney would be first we usually issue a notice of corrective action with the

timeframe. we work with a person if we can get contact with them. even after contact if we still don't get resolution, we'll issue a notice of violation and again since we've made contact, we'll try and work with them at that notice of violation stage and it progresses to a citation stage which carries $1,000 per incident citation process. after those multiple interactions or non-response we send a complaint to the city attorneys. also we are part of the city attorney's task force so we get called a lot to be a member of that task force from another agency. we are not the ones that are initiating it but we

get asked to participate. >>supervisor scott weiner: on your next slide there were 147 cases sent to the city attorney? >> right. those are basically either, we hardly ever refer to the city attorney because we ourselves can handle most of it and/or like in a hoarding situation housing or building takes the lead so then we are asked as a secondary. >>supervisor scott weiner: what would be an appropriate to bring the city attorneys office? >> from us? it would be illegal public assembly or something in our jurisdiction which is high rises or working with boma. very very few issues working with boma.

moving along, you can see in the next slide from 2008-2013. the inspection is less than 8 percent. the most inspections that we do are dbi construction inspections and most of those have to deal with high rises or r 2's large apartment houses and hotels, that sort of thing. so we have no jurisdiction between 1-2 family homes. a lot of the hoarding issues start with dbi. this is another representation breaking out each year. you can definitely see that it's all less than 1

percent for 2008. last year inspector statistics it's almost 22500 inspections. of those 52 were city attorney related. 19-17 were complaints and 379 were notice of violations and all others were 89 percent. the question was asked is legislation needed? the fire department feels that memorandum of understanding really adult protective services and department of public health and city attorneys office can start off with our primary issue with hoarding in addition to the

other agencies typically dbi, planning and all of that. but the first 4-5 that i mentioned are key to this whole thing. wane -- >>supervisor scott weiner: in terms of the jurisdiction, are they all over 1 and 2 buildings? >> no. >> why is that? >> through the fire code and california building code. also when you are talking about a unified code enforcement thing, it's very difficult. you have to make changes at the state level because we are given jurisdiction through the state fire marshall at the state level. >>supervisor scott weiner: right. that's a different discussion. i know we've had some different discussions in the past and the local level. i think we have more latitude locally than the fire department thinks. so, are

you saying understate law it would be illegal? if there is a fire hazard created in a single family home and someone is creating a fire hazard? >> you have to determine what the fire hazard is. when you are talking about the hoarding situation on grand view. we are concerned we egress only and we make sure it's clear and it's up to the building department to determine whether or not there are other issues involved. >>supervisor scott weiner: let's say someone is a hoarder and they have all sorts of materials and papers and books and fabric and let's say there is technically someone who is rather skinny could squeeze through and get in and out and technically it's egress and ingres and they start pouring

gasoline all over but don't sit on fire, at some point there is an issue with the fire department even though it's a single family home? >> yes. if they started a fire using gasoline. >>supervisor scott weiner: not starting but creating a condition that is not a fire but can become a fire. i know it's an extreme situation, but one could imagine it that you have tons of paper, a huge hoarding situation and there is a big thing of gasoline sitting there. but no fire yet. would the fire department do anything? >> the building department would call the fire department to do an inspection. the fire department would send an inspector and request the gasoline to be removed. once the gasoline is removed, we have an abated the situation and when the situation is clear we would an abate it

for the fire department. >> you would have jurisdiction over the single family home? >> no. only with the gasoline. the combustible flammable liquid is part of the fire department. >>supervisor scott weiner: let's say it's not a flammable liquid and fires can start in other ways. are there other situations that could be lit on fire and maybe increased risk because there is tons of this stuff everywhere. >> i think in the grand view situation, that situation had been going on for years and there wasn't a fire. >>supervisor scott weiner: we were lucky. >> yeah, what if, i mean with earthquakes, right? where is the safety for all of these buildings if there is an earthquake. a lot of people were killed in 1989 when the

facade fell off. >>supervisor scott weiner: i think there are situations even when you don't of a combustible liquid there that does seem to a lay person to be a fire risk. you are saying if there is not a combustible liquid there, there is no authority to take action? >> we will make sure that egress and ingres for firefighters is sufficient for the resident. however, beyond >> lieutenant, maybe i can help. i was in a situation where the home was very cluttered and the building owner complained about it and we went. what we did was we looked at the home and we can tell the resident lived there a long long time and it was a single family home and the at the present time was very

aware of the fire code. what i explained to him is that we are concerned with anything that is fire related. if i can't open the door to get in, i can't put out your fire and you cannot get out of the building in an emergency. there was other things he did by locking the building by putting a screw in the window. i had to educate him. i had to tell him to remove the screws. with the screws there, he couldn't open the window and get on the fire escape. i had authority to do that. but in his hallway, one side of the wall was full of shelves, the 44-inch hallway was maybe like 28, i can get through it and he can get through it, but i didn't have the authority to say, no, you have to remove the shelf to become a 42-inch

hallway. that's kind of the example of what jurisdiction we don't have. versus if i was in a high rise building if someone decided to fill the hallway full of furniture which is why the hallway is now a narrow hallway. i would have them move because this is anne egress pass. >>supervisor scott weiner: the others you weren't able to because it was a one or 2 story building? >> right. >>supervisor scott weiner: let's say there is a situation where there is a three or 4-unit billion -- building where you need to remove that from the hallway, and one situation where you want to tell them but you don't have the authority. >> for buildings we have

authority for common areas, but inside a home that is more complicated. >>supervisor scott weiner: let's say a two or 3-unit building you have more jurisdiction? >> yes, we can go to the common hallway the foyer, or should the barbecue be there? we have jurisdiction there. >>supervisor scott weiner: are there situations where you are in a 2-unit building and you see something in the hallway where you think to yourself if this were a 3-unit building, i would definitely make them get rid of that but i don't have the power for that. >> usually in a 3-unit building i don't see a common hallway. usually they have their own entrance. i have not seen this. i can make suggestions. if you move this out of the way you wouldn't of a hazard. we get buildings where people argue with each other a lot. we don't say we don't deal with it because it's one or 2 units. if we

see a hazard, we an abate it. >>supervisor scott weiner: what about in a single family home that is completely removed the whole front staircase porch. i know the building, i know there are obviously some building code issues there and it's a single family home and clearly at the egress is impeded. you have to do basically some rock climbing to get up there, would that be a fire issue? >> we would work with the building department. usually the building department would take the lead. we would work with the building department because the firefighter would need to access it. it gets the building owner to abate the situation much faster. >>supervisor scott weiner: i don't understand why state law would draw distinction between one and 2 units. if it's a

fire hazard, it seems to me it shouldn't matter how many units are in a building. has there been any discussion as to eliminating that? >> not that i know about? >> could we have local jurisdiction on that? >> you would have to talk to the fire marshall. kimberly luis: kim -- >>supervisor jane kim: i have a question. i was curious if you can give me your interpretation of the residential? >> residential means a bed or cot where a person is able to lie down and fall sleep. sleeping in a chair is not considered residential. >>supervisor jane kim: okay, what about sleeping in a floor? >> in a horizontal position, that maybe, but again, you would have to talk to the

building official to get their clarification on residential also. the building code and the fire code tend to share the same definition. >> when you say tend, do they or not, if they do not, where do they differ? >> i don't have the code with me so i can't give you a direct answer to that. i can get back to you if you would like. >>supervisor jane kim: i would appreciate you getting back to me, thank you. >> any other questions? >>supervisor jane kim: mr. chair, it's all yours. >>supervisor scott weiner: i think we are done. >> thank you. >>supervisor scott weiner: now we'll bring department of public health for a presentation and then to public comment. we have doctor johnson oh jo from the department of public health. >> good afternoon, my name is

johnson ohjo representing the department of public health. i will be sharing with you very briefly the department of public health code enforcement policies and procedures as requested and i will be available to answer any questions that you may have. i discovered that the chart provided because of the number provided on the flowchart is not too well on the screen. bear with me. we'll try to see if we can get this on. our healthy housing program is designed to inspect residential apartments with

more than three 3 units in the city and to respond to our complaints of properties violating the health code. the department of public health enforcement action are generated through two distinct sources. namely services request or complaints to routine inspections. usually for routine inspections these facilities that we routinely inspect throughout the year and these include the hotels, apartments, shelters. many of the times, these inspection are scheduled. the service request or complaints are usually made to 311 system, through e-mails, and public agencies and the board of

supervisors and mayor's office. what we do when we receive these complaints, the routine and the complete inspections are generate what we call notice of violation. when we review these complaints we make initial investigations and usually we respond within 48 hours. during the inspection, if we discover there is no violation, the cases are vetted. if the issue is not within the purview of the department of public health, we'll file the case to appropriate city agencies. after the inspection if we observed any violation, we issue a notice of violation. with specific corrective actions to be made and depending on the severity of the complaints we may locate

from 1-30 days. sanitation as well as 7 days issues with total sanitation is 14 days and 30 days for our total violations. if for example when we go about after notice of violation, if the nov is corrected, the case is closed. if there is no correction, we issue a citation to the branch for the hearing. usually the hearing is held every tuesday each week. at that hearing, some extension might be granted or referred to the department of public health

hearing usually it's held once every month. at the hearing, if the case, if the violation is corrected, it will be closed. if it is not corrected, usually the directors orders is final. meaning if the operator or the owner of the property did not cooperate, the department of public health can order a summary abatement. this results into a vacation order especially in sro's. the hearing officer council issues a fine of up to $1,000 by day that the violation remains uncorrected. if there is on

going uncompliance, the case maybe referred to the city attorneys office. i want to specify here that many of our cases as soon as we discover that a specific issue is not going to be corrected within the time specified, especially in sro hotels, we've worked out a very good working relationship with aps. where by we refer cases to aps to provide early intervention. >>supervisor scott weiner: in terms of as i mentioned before a severe hoarder situation. i was very frustrated with this situation. dph the process got stuck and we were dealing

with alternative housing and were told that department of public health was addressing the situation and it didn't happen. the housing and dbi got the personnel into alternate housing. are things moving efficiently through dbi process? >> i can assure you that process has dramatically improved. it was in transition at that time. when i came on board less than a year, as soon as i recognized the issue, because we have the authority to declare the premises unhabitable and provide alternative housing to the individual. it was unfortunate that happened. as soon as i found out, i did issue the order to vacate and we worked very closely with the city attorneys office to