>> the city of san francisco, sfgtv meeting of the special budget and finance committee occurring, thursday, june 18, 2015 will begin shortly.

>>[gavel] >> good morning. welcome to the budget and finance committee for thursday june 18, 2015. my name is mark farrell of you chairing this committee. i am joined by committee vice chair supervisor tang and as well as supervisors normandie and scott wiener. i will mke thi sf and when i think sfgtv to ship any >> please turn off electronic devices and copies of any documents included as part of the file should be submitted to

the clerk. will be on the board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you. call items 1 to 3 >> item number one on the budget update from the mayor is the controller and budget legislative analyst including balance shortfalls, trends and additional revenues. item number two proposed budget and probation ordains a pervading all estimated expenditures for the apartments of the city and county of san francisco as of june 1 2015 per fiscal year ending june 30, 2015 and june 30, 2017. item number three, proposed annual salary ordinance enumerated positions me a little budget provision for the fiscal year ending june 30, 2015 and june 30, 2017 continuing creating or xm send these positions. >> >> thank you very much. i lease, these are regular budget items in the months were going

to do it within it going today, we have two departments organa do this to the major of this budget that an agreement get when they come first. so i believe we have a memorial and apartment building inspection get right up after that will be human services agency and i know -- is here that we have the arts commission academy of sciences and then after that the children's and family commissioned these uif county education office in bch. will be against. recreational park mr. -- has a commission meeting right now and so he will be entering at some point. during the process. so, with that, first war memorial. but have you come up. >> good morning supervisor beth murray manager and director of the war memorial. we like to think the mayor's office and the budget and legislative analyst for their help this year in budget preparation. i know you know our mission. the war memorial department is to manage and maintain the buildings across

the street, the upper house, the veterans building, and the symphony hall. you know that our primary focus for 2015-16 is the reopening of the veterans building after a 2+ year construction period. lava very successful although construction counting construction project which is restored a viable and historic asset for the city. i would like to thank the mayor's office and the board of supervisors for the full support we received in executing this project. i would also like to highly commend the department of public works listen not only our partner, but it was provided outstanding project management and architectural service for this project. so, we are on a countdown to completion. we will complete the building in phases, starting with the hertz

theater, so we can begin a technical mission fac we will ha substantial completion since july 31. the war memorial and veterans organization will move in in august of 2015. all finalists final completion date for the basement to third floor is september 1. during september the arts commission and grants for the arts will be moving into the veterans building. we are really excited about having them as new occupants. on october 1 we will begin performance and event activity in the hertz theater and greenroom, and then in mid-late november 4 floor room renovations were to being privately funded by the san francisco opera will be completed. just wanted to show you a couple of construction photos here of the herbst eared. the greenroom off which we had a private grant to do the full painting and building

upgrade also the veterans main lobby. so, on our budget the 15-16 budget restores our veterans building position and services, which were deleted starting in fiscal year 13 14, the two-year construction period erie it i would note that in 15-16 result line of programmatic budget of $3 million, which includes the receipts and expenditure of two private grants that we received totaling $2.54 million to do additional veterans building improvements, and then a $450,000 project for the phone and data insulation to the department of technology for both the war memorial and the arts commission. you will see below our position has been restored to the pre- construction level. on our

performance activity, as i mentioned before, performances in herbst theater in greenroom will start in october of 2015. there are two new rental performance spaces on the fourth floor. again, those are being privately funded. they will open for rentals in february of 2016, and these new venues will be available for use by smaller arts organizations for six months every year. this is the first time we have had a small enough then you to invite some of our smaller organizations. war memorial has reached agreement on the budget analyst recommendations. again, i like to think the supervisors for your continuing support of the war memorial. >> okay. thank rex colleagues any questions? if not, mr. rose can we go to your report, please?

>> mr. chairman, and members of the committee, on page 30 of our report i recommend a reduction to the proposed budget of the 110th at $100,000 in 1516. of that amount. or a one-time savings reductions would still allow an increase of $12,054,000 or 89.1% in the department's fiscal year 15 and 16 budget. we have no recommended reductions to the proposed budget and 16, 17. now mr. chairman, members of the committee, one clarification. as i understand, that obama does concur with the recognitions. however, if you look on page 31 of our reports we listed that recommended reduction as a non-general fund. it is our understanding and it is the department's understanding that it is a general fund reduction, with your authorization and with we look to the control to reflect that as a general fund reduction.

>> >> thank you. supervisor mar >> it is wonderful that war memorial will be such a stellar building but the veterans memorial in the courtyard will be an amazing place as well. i just do not i know it has not been easy, but i want to ask, so the veterans organizations that are temporarily relocated are moving back door checking to get is the ghost in august of 2015, are all the organizations coming back or are some not coming back? i am just curious >> ali seven cisco american legion post will be returning, and they have 23,000 ft.2 of space for their use which we designed incarnation with them. >> these photos of the renovation are amazing. i cannot wait to see the spaces

on unbelief, i believe it was the top floor where the law library was good was convened? >> that can be one of the two new performance rental spaces, and that is the construction of that particular facility is being funded privately by san francisco opera, and they will then went that facility from us for six months of the year. we will rent it to small arts organizations for the other six months. >> you made a point that they are a couple of other departments that are moving in to the building where those department? >> >> the arts commission and grants for the arts. >> that is great. they do so much good >> okay no colleagues over the questions thank you for all your hard work and look forward to the completion. colleagues, without i would love to act on this item if we could take a motion to approve the budget analyst at and specifically reflecting they are going to be general fund cuts pending public comments. >>

>> i may come motion to make those cuts for war memorial >> we have a motion by supervisor tang and second by supervisor mar without objection >> up next though department of building inspection. i saw mr. hugh here. >> good morning my name is -- director of the building inspection. i am going to present you our budget. before i start i would like to quickly appreciate the mayor's budget's office who worked closely with my deputy director -- to work on this budget. before i would

like but i start i would like to highlight the mission. the mission of our department is mainly is safeguard the rights and property in san francisco. make sure all the buildings are complying with the building codes. plumbing, electrical, and reinforce enforcement is our concern in the city. then i would like to show you last year, because of the revenue compared with this year, this year is lower. due to the fee reduction, and also, 2.1

million reduction due to the work orders and decrees in 15-16 due to the reduction reduction transfer for projects. thenthe chart here will show you how we deal in our budget for this year. compared to last year. also, the department does not have any other new positions. in this proposed budget. then the fellowship is new legislation.

because due to the fee, the new the reduction, and also the deep puzzle to reduce the fee, raising the fee for the new, what we call, legalizing unit two ways that the lien fee [inaudible] also, the common worked with older housing initiative including the safety program for [inaudible] and also the affordable housing units. the new housing program also included the -- program for inspection for more than 3500 units. also, we continue

to improve the technology by a new program called [inaudible]. to upgrade, to make our customers familiar with the program. to improve the permits and also the inspection services. also we are in agreement with the budget analyst, and also [inaudible] mr. -- can be addressed [inaudible]. any other questions you have? >> thank you. colleagues, any questions or comments. supervisor wiener >> thank you for the presentation. i want to raise the issue, i know it is not before us today. i guess that

the setting will be the force mr. chairman another day. i have a questions and concerns about the reduction in the permit fees because i want to make sure that we are doing as robust a code enforcement regime as we can. we have enormous code enforcement needs in the city, and i do not think were doing enough.. actually, dbi does more -- there is other departments who do exceptionally little code enforcement and refer almost nothing to the city attorney's office. ddi certainly does more particularly in the house inside, but it is a massive need. i am concerned -- or understand the reserves are growing because we have this boom-bus situation with depending on whether there is development and construction happening or not. i know you been working with the controller

so they are not giving away the entire reserve in the vehicle should the next downturn because we do not want to see mass layoffs again, but i would like to get some thought about what else we could do with those funds in terms of increasing code enforcement, both in terms of ddi's own code enforcement and in working with the city attorney's office. i would like to see a bigger role for the city attorney's office in going after some of the egregious violations that we see. i also in this potential use for funds in terms of for example, tens of thousands of illegal units that we have given people ask for legalization, but you have a lot of small property owners who absolutely do not have the funds to do the work needed to get these units up to code. so, they will stay unregistered, illegal units. so, we should consider whether there possibilities of helping them

become code compliant. so, i just want to put that out there and see what your thoughts are. we are working with the controller's office on potential modeling of how we might be able to use funds in different ways, but i am a little -- i am skeptical of just simply agreeing to the fee reduction in the of so many unmet code needs. >> supervisor wiener, it is a good question. that is also my concern. the fee study we did not do for the last 10 years, and then we have of the study finished my and then we also agreed with the next, three, four, five years will be monitoring our feed to make sure we coincide with our expenditures and also, in the future so we do not have elected oppressions we do not have a layoffs. to answer also another question had about court in full enforcement, we realize that the already high extreme housing inspector and

also we continue to hire inspectors in the field in the electrical department, and also -- [inaudible] also, we have small homeowners, because the legalization, that is why we raised the fee for -- on those to have them encourage them to get the permit for the legalization. we are actively engaging the public to make sure what we can do to help them out. and encourage them to get the permit instead of not doing anything without a permit. >> i know you guys are doing some good work but it continues to be an ongoing problem in the city. not just the dbi issue is a lot of departments that are involved. with that conversation with the fire department, department of

health, continued situations with just egregious code violations, whether it is apartment buildings like the one at market and octavia. that was where these tenants were just living in just the most horrific conditions among war homes in -- i know my district, really it is a drug house that has gone on for decades, or a massive order, clutter issues that create a hazard for the entire neighborhood, and it just takes so long for any action to occur. it takes for so long for anything to be referred to the city attorney's office. if ever. to take that on a firm action and sue the property owner. i just want to see more effective enforcement that are working on legislation. the given language stalled apartments including

dbi to have a more centralized approach, including not requiring a referral from a department to city attorney in order to file a lawsuit, which i think is a major bottleneck. it is a concern to reduce these fees. but without the reduction before say a large downtown development? you are talking one of the big massive buildings being built downtown what would that cut be in terms of the reduction they would experience? >> generally, the fee reduction is 7% overall. for all those projects >> so i know it has a range but what would the range of a building permit fee be? >> some people would be 7% [inaudible] plus or minus. for the whole entire year. >> so a lot project would be up paid more than $84 million? >> no it is not the project it is overall. we do not keep of each project. it is overall. for the 7%.