staffing needs might be if we see a dip in performance, initially. >> so that is plan for two days, the week of december 8th. >> the other items that we have and the citizen out reach program with the move and the go live date, lily is coordinating that and continues to coordinate that with the planning department and that will basically slide but the date will be 1 week prior to go live. and that is when we will do the citizen out reach, and we are coordinating with the citizen's advisory group on that out reach and we will also include the key stake holders of dbi and the commission as well as others. >> and those are my prepared comments, any further questions? >> no, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> is there any public comment on item five?

>> okay, seeing none, item 6, the discussion of the department of building inspections and enforcement division statistics on complaint and inspections continued from the october 15, 2014 meeting. >> good morning commissioners my name is patrick (inaudible) and i am the chief building

inspector at dbi. i have done this back in october and i have added a couple of slides because this was based on data to the end of august and i did add some numbers from september and october. >> this includes the snapshot of the building inspection division or the bid complaints and it is covers the months from january, through august of 2014. and by numbers, and percentages. and it also includes informational and performance evaluation data. and there is historically a reference, to data from january, 2009, through december of 2013. building inspection division or rid, is one of six at dbi that received and investigates

complaints. nearly 7,000 complaints have been filed from january through august 2014. of those 7,000, 2,000 were routed to bid. a complaint investigation team within the bid has recently closed 1500 of 2,000 complaints that remained open from january of 2009 to december of 2013. >> on this is an ongoing effort and will lead to the closure of many more of these open complaints that are still unresolved. >> work without a permit is the most common complaint filed followed by unsafe buildings, work beyond the scope, and expired permits. >> we may have a problem.

>> i can see it. >> by the way, nice charts. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> work without the permit is the most common complaint filed. followed by unsafe buildings, work beyond the scope and miscella nious and expired permits, work without a permit is investigated, and if there are any xlaipts that have active building permits associated with the property are distributed to the district building inspectors. and this enables the inspector familiar with the property to investigate the complaint. and an average of 248 complaints are filed monthly. as bid. and to max number was in march, where we had a number of 324. while in february we had the minimum number of 209. >> okay. >> thank you. >> and the notable division between february and march

could be attributable to two factors number one, february being the shortest month of the year and then number two, march sees an increase in the complaint activity which the conclusion increases after the winter months. and the average of 11 complaints are filed daily and the standard deviation is 5.36 and simply speaking what that means is 16 or 17 complaints can be filed one day, while the next day, it may be as few as 5 or 6 complaints filed. this shows the unpredictbility of the complaint filings and the staff illustrates the daily influx filed at dib. >> sorry. inspector if i could interrupt you on that, and so we have a choice here if we want this to be to the general public, which that was my big goal for it and we have to take a five minute recess. for them to get this fixed so that it can be displayed on the

screen because i really felt that these kind of statistics are important for the public to see. and that is one of the reasons that i wanted to see along with my fellow commissioners however, we have a full calendar and so i want to be mindful of the fact if we take a five minute recess that this will be up when we come back or just continue? >> we could just continue from this item. >> okay. >> could we do another item and have them work it on. >> is that okay, or do we have to show? >> i don't know. let me just... >> it is the sunshine issue. >> yeah. >> we need to recess. >> so, basically, we will have to recess for five minutes for them to actually have this working correctly. now, okay. and we are going to do that, okay. and they said that it will be really quick. >> okay. >> we will be back. >> okay. so if it is no objection, to the fellow commissioners we will take a five-minute recess. and we will start this

presentation again if that is okay and i think that it is important for the public to see this. >> that is fine. i i will be prepared next time. >> that is not your fault. and so if that is okay, five minutes recess and we will see everybody back here and then we will continue. >> okay. >> we we are going to resume t discussion of the item 6,discussion of department of building inspection's enforcement division statistics on complaints and inspections. >> okay. >> good morning, commissioners my name is patrick... and i am the chief building inspector at dbi. this is a presentation that i made back in september, to the staff and management at dbi. in regard to building inspection division, bid

complaints. this is a snapshot of bid complaints that it is both informational and performance evaluation data. by the numbers from january, through august, 2014, and represented in percentages from january through august of 2014. it also includes historical data, from january 2009, to december 2013. i have added two slides for updates for the months of september, and october. just for your information. bid is one of six at dbi that receives and investigates complaints. and nearly 7,000 complaints have been filed from january through august of 2014. with almost 2,000 of those being filed at bid.

bid has investigated these complaints as well as performing, 38209 permit inspections in that same time period. a complaint investigation team within bid has recently closed, 1500 complaints of almost, 2,000 that were opened from january 2009, through december 2013. this is ongoing and will lead to the closure of many of these open complaints that are still unresolved. >> work without a permit is the most common, and followed by work without a permit and beyond the scope. >> work without a permit is generally investigated by the investigation team within bid and the complaints that have the active building permits associated with the property are distributed to the district building inspectors.

this enables the inspector most familiar with the property to investigate the complaint. an average of 248 complaints are filed monthly at bid, and the max number was in march and while february saw complaint filed, the difference between february and march could be atrib able to two factors february being the shortest month of the year, while then in number tw, march, the seasoned mark increase in the activist when the construction increases after the winter months. the standard deviation is 5.36, speaking that means that we can have 15 or 16 complaints tiled in one day, and the next day

might see as few as five or six. and this shows the unpredictbility of the complaint filings, and this illustrates the daily flux and there are challenges for managers and for the permit inspection and the complaint investigation processes. inspectors are exhibiting notable investigation, and that both the investigation and the permit inspections are performed in the mandated time lines, generally speaking inspections are required to be performed, no more than 48 hours after scheduling. while complaints are to be investigated not more than 72 hours after their filing. >> the majority is investigated

and closed in 72 hours, it is atrib able to the seasonable increase in the permit inspection activity. we have one inspector from bid on the extended leave and that does impact our response time. this slide represents the previous one in the percentile format. our response time mandates are generally represented in a percentile format, which makes this a useful tool in reassigning inspectors to create greater efficiency. 85 percent is a base line for a performance standard. the dip in performance for july and august is atrib able to an increase in permit activity for those months. the number of complaints that are open for more than 3 days, have been going down each month. the notable up toward trend in the complaint closure in 24 hours as july, and jun and august shows, represents an

increase in efficiency. violations verified means the complaints remain open for more than 72 hours. and those complaints are generally cases where notices of violation have been issued and access to investigate is not always easily secured. research may be needed and sometimes the permits are in review or have been issued for compliance with the notice of violation that was issued in relation to the complaint. the map shows the district boundaries and generally the corridors are towards the north east part of the country and usually they increase while moving in a south westernly direction. >> a building inspector is assigned to each of thoughs districts and additionally a complaint investigation team investigates the complaints city wide for the xlaipts other than the properties which have

active building permits. there are large differences in the numbers of complaints filed by the commercial and districts with high concentrations of the residential dwelling units, residential areas tebd to have more complaints and a substantial number of complaints are closed in 24 hours ask while a greater number are closed in 72 hours. and again, the complaints will open for more than 72 hours, and are in many cases complaints which have had notices of violation and access to investigate is not secured and the research is needed and the permits are being reviewed or issued for the compliance with the nov. this chart shows a trend that the complaint will open for more than 72 hours may result in novs. and they are found in the districts with concentrations with the residential occupancy and again, the 72 hour, open

complaint is generally a result of the violations being documented and or ongoing investigations being necessary. and the number of open complaints in august is larger because of the time the data was quirred is at the beginning of september and the recent months of june and july and august are showing a greater number of complaints opened as a result of the permits still issued for compliance, and for the closure of the cases. this shows that most of the complaints are closed in 24 hours and the complaints are open for more than six days are the cases where the violations exist and the closure cannot be easily validated novs may mean the life safety hazards exist and the closure cannot happen

without mitigation. the open complaints since january, 2014, are mostly cases involving work without permit. this includes, the requests and the suspension or revocation, requests which generally have notices of violation issued. and unsafe, buildings still open, probably have novs issued unless we are awaiting engineering evaluation in some cases. unsafe, building complaints are sometimes emergency situations, where a bid inspector responds within an hour. and 24/7, inspector is also on call for after hours emergencies. case update is the most common action that includes the regular monitoring and updating of activists leading to a case of closure. >> most entries into a

complaint file is an update of some kind in moving a case forward towards its closure and the 445 novs issued are still awaiting the permit sign-off in most cases. the second nov are cases that have been referred to the code enforcement section for additional enforcement action due to the failure to comply with the first notice. this is one of the slides that i added and this includes data representing complaints filed by the division from january through october of 2014. the number represented in parenthesis is the actual number of complaints filed in that division for the months of september and october. >> so that is above and beyond what is represented in the january through august numbers that you have seen up to this

point. this chart represents the filings that building inspection division, again through october, and it is important to note that the number of complaints being filed is trending up towards. now, about 650 complaints were filed at bid in the months of september and october. and the trend we are seeing in how i can best explain it is that more permits more people impacted by work, more people filing complaints, by the work that is not going on around them and we are seeing that a lot of the allegations tend to be unfounded on, or in the 60 percent of all of the complaints that have been closed for the months of september and october. >> and so we, and in responding and investigating we are seeing that, you know, a lot of it has

to do with the increased amount of construction that is generally going on around the city and the people are impacted some what, and they tend to file the complaints in some cases. and as a wrap up, the 1984 complaints filed at bid since january have been investigated timely and closed where possible, the majority in 72 hours, and the remaining complaints are opened mostly due and the need to verify the compliance with the permit and the many problems encountered in gaining access. many have been closed and 629 that are opened are regularly updated and will be closed with the completing of the permits or the access to investigate, of the 629, 326 were actually filed just since june. this has been in conjunction of

performing, 38209 permit inspections and the night noise and condo conversion inspections and etc.. and so, it is important to understand that the inspectors are working very hard to make sure that we are performing, and as well as the service of providing inspections and i would also like to thank gary love who was instrumental in putting this thank you gary, and your suggestions and comments, and they are appreciated to create a more efficient process for both the staff and the stake holders of the department any questions or comments? >> okay, commissioner. >> okay. >> thank you very much. and i was quite comprehensive and i would just like a little insight into the section that is dealing with the work without permits and work beyond scope. >> right.

>> and when that kind of complaint is filed, what is the work load within our department in responding to those two scenarios. >> we have to be flexible and because some inspection districts carry the heavy loads of inspections and as i said in the presentation, generally, work without a permit, is when someone just does not have a permit and we have a complaint investigation team of 3 inspectors and two inspectors and a supervisor, and who you, know, investigate those cases which for which they have no permit. but, it makes more sense for us to assign the district building inspector to a complaint when it is work exceeding the scope because that district inspector may have been out there, and they are familiar with the job, and we, you know, we feel that it is in, and in the interest of getting resolution to have them go out there because, in most cases, they know about it.

now, the building inspections are requested and then in responding to the mandate for 72 hours of response and then we will assign it to the complaint and investigation team and just so that we respond and investigate. and so we do call in the inspectors from the investigation team and sometimes from the district if the investigation team are burdened with an unusually large load of complaints to investigate. again, we if you are remember the volatilety slide, it tends to like, go up and down, quite dramatically and so, we, you know we just have to deal with what we are presented with. >> okay. >> all right, bear with me one moment. three people, to do the process in a work without permit.

>> they also do as i mentioned work exceeding the scope, which the districts are busy. and they also work on reviewing the complaints from the years past, and so that we can get the numbers down. >> you were just talking about the number of the people doing the work totally, not on each case. >> well, generally, it is two inspectors who are supervised by one, and the load of investigation of the inspections or of the complaints is spread between those two and involving work without a permit. bear with me a minute. goit a piece of paper on my desk that says that something is going on with the 222 work without the permit, i just go and see if 222 avenue has a permit or not. what do i have to do more than that? >> well the supervisor, and in

the complaint investigation team takes in all of the complaints that are filed on that given day in the afternoon of the day. >> okay. >> and he determines if a, if there is a permit in relation to that specific address, and if there is a permit, he will look at assigning it to the district inspector. but, before he does that, he will look and see how busy the district is. and so if the district is booking inspections three days out, he is going to assign it to one of this complaint investigation teams, so we don't impact the district any more and in regard to the ability to provide those inspections. so, then again, if it is no permit, he will right off of the bat assign it to one of the complaint investigation team inspectors, does that answer your question? >> yeah, i see what happened. >> yeah. >> okay. >> any more? >> i mean that i don't even know where to start but it is

kind of, you have given us a lot of data here and i think that it is kind of, you know, it is shaping up now, i mean, that i am looking at the, and it is probably not here, but, what might, and i wish that commissioner mar was here and i think that it would be here until midnight with this stuff here, because there is a lot of stuff in here that he has been trying to get his head around and maybe we will make sure that he gets a copy of this but the nov and but, as a look at the last actions of all of the complaints, and then we go down through it and no entry one was on the 49, which is kind of surprises me and i thought that was higher up and that is one reason that you can't get in the building but it is actually quite low. >> i think that we are getting better, and being or getting more resourceful at finding ways to see what is going on. >> and sometimes we can contact the neighbors and especially if they are going to be the

complainants and get the action and plainly see what is going on just from their side and we will not even have to answer the property or anything else. and we can just see what is going on. >> yeah, okay. >> so more on... >> some of it is more administrative if it is an expired permit, we don't have to go out and see we can just check the data base. >> as i found on that chart then, and it goes the right direction, and then, we are left with four or five with like, six or other, and then we are referred to the other division which, i think that is interesting, and which is five. and so, we are kind of out of the picture then, right? >> well, generally speaking, what we do, refer to the other division, means that we take in a complaint and we think that it is something to do with the building inspection division and we go out there and we find that it really should be a fire inspector and an electrical inspector and should be looking at that point. and so what we do is we come

back and we close that complaint and we are out of the picture and we refer the same complaint to whoever would be the responsible division for dealing with that matter. >> okay. >> and so, is that where our weakness is on these novs that never get resolved? is it that whereas a call the (inaudible) nov the ones that never seem to get anywhere? >> well, all hands on deck cannot part it out? >> we have an administrative code enforcement process. when we exhaust the administrative process, right now i think that we have something like several hundred notices of violation, which we have taken through all of the code enforcement steps. the next step is to refer to the litigation committee and the approval for referring to the city attorney, but, you know, we have so many of these things, that you know, you are

right, it is a pergatory of nov and they are sitting there and we do go through and we refer as many as we can to litigation committee. and we look at them based on, you know, the seriousness of what is described on those novs. and i mean that if we go through and we constantly monitor those, and we see that there is something like, maybe, a retaining wall that may be failing, we may go back out and say, you know, let's take a look at this and this might be important and this might be something that we should refer to the litigation committee and maybe send over to the city attorney, because, this bears looking at. >> yeah. >> and you know tha, someone said in the litigation committee, it is complex, you know? and these cases can be complex. >> yes. >> but i guess to the over all bottom line, which is i am trying to get to the bottom of. we are doing our job and those numbers are chiping away at your good work and

accomplishments we are going to get the x amount every year and are they reflected in these graphs ? >> the code enforcement numbers are not. >> no. >> because they are in a different division. >> right. >> okay. >> this is just the building inspection division. >> okay. >> these numbers take us to where we refer the code enforcement if we need to and another form of purgatory is that we can't get the access and so if there is a navigation of something, say inside of a building, and we there is an, allegation, and we cannot just close that out, and we are not going to say that we keep trying and we go out and try to contact the individuals and in those cases, and in a lot of,

scenarios, stayed open for some time, because we can't validate, either violation, based on the complaint, and we don't have enough to say, there is no real issue here because we can't get in. >> right. >> commissioner? >> thank you so much for all of this data and presenting it in such a way that we can sort of see the friends and see that we are, i believe that we are heading in the right direction, in closing some of this out. and i sit on the litigation committee, as long as they remain open, it is difficult to take an action, especially if there is a threat that it might be a health safety issue, so, we have