Skip to main content

tv   Government Access Programming  SFGTV  November 24, 2017 3:00pm-4:01pm PST

3:00 pm
when we think of metrics and assign a dollar value, how much did the city lose from employee xyz at home for three hours, there's a dollar volume you can assign to that. you can also measure a complaint that had merit found in wrong doing that was stopped. that's another way to measure it. and that's never reflected in the analysis of the material i have ever seen. i think it was, we don't want to put in -- first of all, they're confidential. we don't want to put in anything that would restrict participation in or reporting of information but i have never
3:01 pm
understood -- so closed does not speak to the merits of the number of complaints received. i'm wondering if there's a reason and i think there is, but if you could tell me again, i would appreciate it. >> you are correct. because the complaint is closed doesn't mean it was substantiated. we evaluate the complaint, the investigation determines if there's a factual basis for the allegations and then if the allegations are true, if the alleged conduct would violate city criteria, policy and procedure or city code -- does that answer the first part? >> substantiated or
3:02 pm
unsubstantiated are both inside the closed category. >> and in the quarterly and annual reports it breaks down -- it breaks out by department. there's a table in quarterly reports or chart showing which percentage of complaints closed led to department taking corrective or preventive action. >> or even it shows whether or not the department moves on the recommendation of the whistleblower controller office, somewhat outside your control. but at least you can measure accurately the number of recommendations measured against the overall complaints, you said to the department we have investigation pursuant to the
3:03 pm
authority, we recommend disciplinary action to whatever department and they can be measured. are they? >> i think the stae tick statis you're asking for, it's by publishing in the reports which part investigated and closed resulted in a corrective and preventive action by the departments. those are published in the annual reports. >> in the annual report. >> and quarterly. >> fantastic. thank you. >> i think going forward something we can do that will help the committee and help the dialogue that we'll have across the podium is pull some of the stats in our presentation just
3:04 pm
so that we can focus attention on those in a more public form. but definitely all of that work is published on our web site annually or quarterly. >> any other comments? any public comment? >> thank you. >> seeing none -- yes. >> good morning committee members, i'm a whistleblower. i would like to thank committee member carlson for his inquiry about complaints that linger for a year or more. i have a complaint filed with the program and it's well over 11 months, close to a year. i'd like to echo mr. flaherty's
3:05 pm
concern that when complaints linger for a long time, people tend to think they're not being taken seriously. that's true. but there's another concern. the vast majority of the complaints are sent right back to the department that the complaint was filed against. and given human nature, there's going to be resistance and reluctance to investigate one's own colleagues. particularly when it's a high level official, which is what my complaint was about. i don't know how to resolve this, except that the program outlines certain reasons why complaints take a long time but
3:06 pm
they never mention the awkwardness and resistance that departments face when they have to investigate their own people. one thing that would be helpful, if a complaint drags on for a year or more, that the complainant would be contacted and informed. we check on the computer and all it tells you is under investigation. under investigation. but why for a year? so anyway, i just wanted to put that out there. thank you. >> thank you dr. kerr. any other public comment? if not, call the next item. >> item seven, opportunity for committee members to comment or take action on any matters within the jurisdiction. pad am co-chair these are items fiscal year 2017/18 work
3:07 pm
initiatives, items a-g. >> i can give background on those. so brenda and i met with peg to go over some of the great ideas that have come up over the past few meetings for ways to get information out to our voters. so we finally decided to write them down in one place and peg has agreed to give us updates on all of them at every meeting so we can understand the progress of these good ideas. probably better to do it from here. so peg stevenson from the controller's office. i'll make brief comments on each items and answer any questions you might have. the benchmarking work is well
3:08 pm
underway. we have chosen jurisdictions, a couple of them here in the city of san francisco, a couple other cities have similar functionality. we have basic information and doing interviews, we expect to issue a report before the end of the calendar year and have this available for presentation to you in your january peting. so that's where we are with the benchmarking. the standardized template, comparing it to the material that was in our annual geo bond report presented on in september and the table that i included in your packet has differences between them. i guess my suggestion here are that the same information is
3:09 pm
largely in both. there isn't a substantial schedule or report that you're not getting in your quarterlies that was in our annual. i do think there are some visual and layout improvements that the quarterly would benefit from just looking at it and looking at some of the ways the information is presented. the changes in format and that sort of thing. there are consistency improvements across the program that could be made. could be added to the quarterly and improve it, visual graphs for context like the little fuel gauge graph on completions for some of the bond program
3:10 pm
confines that i think are mostly presented in text right now. they're doing bullet points of text completion and that sort of thing. what i'm proposing to do, i'll meet with julia dawson, the finance and administration at public works and the person who is the owner of the quarterly template, i'll see if we can go ahead with some of the improvements we're observing and fold them into the next couple of programs that come before you. there's detail in the quarterlies that is not in our wrap up program report. change orders for example you wouldn't want to not have. it's not entirely a 1 way street. let me have that meeting with julia and see where they are having updated financials and then we can report to you on
3:11 pm
improvements. >> one quick question it's two separate reports. >> the report they do for the presentation, there's more details in the quarterlies that are present. there wasn't anything to compare it to in the geo bond. >> there's still work to be done.
3:12 pm
web site improvements, our technical people have met to talk about this, similar improvements to controllers own web site. i think what will happen next, we're probably going to get a short contract through the text door, a web designer to do a better job for us. if there are tests formats we think you should look at before we publish them, we can do that with them. probably mostly make the improvements and report them to you. >> great. >> the satisfaction survey, we have a pool of providers that do public satisfaction. all different surveying.
3:13 pm
we'll bring you a couple of options to the january meeting. the conversation was feedback on what you want public satisfaction survey to contain. do you want to try and test the opinion of users of a facility, voters, the general public, probably a couple of different possible constituencies you might be interested in. there are different ways to test. there are surveys you're in the facility people are using, handing them a survey and asking them, phone polls, web polls. different sampling approaches. we have some opinions about this and our providers will have opinions, too. what i'm proposing to do is bring you a couple of options in january and see if we can get some feedback from you. ben's suggestion, he has in mind, streetscape improvement project and then a facility
3:14 pm
project such as a rec center. i think i can speak to him that those would be a good scale test of opinion and we know how to survey the users of those. a voter test could be harder. the public finance forward calendar, you got the memo which jamie prepared, that's a regular feature of the packet, already proved its usefulness i think. expenditure audits are underway and before tanya leaves the room, i don't know off the top of my head, when they are expected to be completed, certainly not january but one of the following meetings in the fiscal year. >> it will be third and fourth
3:15 pm
quarter. >> thank you. and finally geo bond report is on the list. we didn't talk about that specifically but just keep it on our calendar. >> any comments, questions? thank you. >> other matters not in the list? >> all right. can you -- barb, i think we all got this in the mail. did you guys -- >> yes. >> go over quickly what it is we're signing here. thank you for sending it out. >> the item that co-chair, she was referring to is the
3:16 pm
harassment policy education from the city that is dube at the en of the year, for those commissioners who supervisor city staff. and so, this committee does not supervisor any city staff and so you were given instructions via e-mail and guidelines as to how to complete and submit that form to me. >> great. >> okay. thank you. >> any other matters? great. have a good holiday. we're adjourned. ♪
3:17 pm
>> all right. good morning, everyone. i am mohammed nuru, the director of the san francisco public works department. i want to gyp by just thanking all of you by joining us to celebrate the completion of our new office of chief medical examiners' facility. [ applause ] just to acknowledge a couple of people that are joining us today i see the fire chief. his wife is here. i see commander laz is r is here, along with commander ewing from the police department.
3:18 pm
of course, our sheriff, sheriff hennessee, who will be actually providing security at this facility, tom dewey, the director, and the office of occi. the office of community engagement and involvement. yes. and, of course, all of you. i just again want to say thank you. what a tremendous project this is. it brings me great joy to welcome this new addition to the city's infrastructure to hunter's point the neighborhood the prom has been in the works for a while. we're glad to have it in
3:19 pm
bayview. not only is this facility a world-class facility, it's -- this facility has been delivered in a very fiscal matter and timely. i think, for me, one of the most important things that we like on a job and it happened on this job, it was delivered with a great safety record. not one injury in the two years this prom was built. this project is a support project. it's and as the director of the project i want
3:20 pm
to say how proud hi am to deliver this project. and i want to take this opportunity to thank the public works team in all of the work they did on this project. that was led by city architect edgar lopez. several of our project architects, magnidina royal. i also want to thank our talented construction crew and construction company, clock construction, who did a very, very good in delivering this. and, of course, k.m.d. architects, the designers of the facility. and, most important, our client and partner, dr. hunter, and his staff.
3:21 pm
and i can tell you, with all of the projects in this city, none of them would be possible without the leadership of our mayor, ed lee. who, ed, before you became mayor, you were at the city administrator's office. you will hear from the city administrator today also. but his commitment and his dedication to making sure that we invest in capital improvements, especially towards our infrastructure project. and he has made that a top priority of his administration. and through his leadership, a lot of projects that the city desperately needs are actually happening. so i'm not going to say a lot of great things that ed has done, but let's hear from him, our mayor, ed lee. [ applause ] >> why aren't you going to say a lot about what i've done?
3:22 pm
what's wrong with that? well, let me say this: this is a fun day because a number of accomplishments are made. you know, i see our president, london breed, who is here just sitting down now because she's so busy doing so many other things. but she found the time. and working in partnership with the board is really born when it comes to earthquake safety and emergency response. so let me give you the larger picture of why today is so important. we have to get ready for the big disasters. we've seen it happen. it's gotten really close with the fires up north. and you realize how much things that should, could have been done to prevent that. but we also have the your honors in -- but we also have the hurricanes in the south.
3:23 pm
we have man-mades and we study them. that's why so many of our participants today are part of our first responder agencies and personnel because this facility is that important. when we were in recruitment and interviewing dr. hunter for this job as chief medical examiner, he asked because he toured the original place. i'm sure he mild at the recent news that we're getting as many people out of the hall of justice as possible. well, buried in the basement has been dr. hunter's office for quite some time. he smiled when he sat down with us and said, you're going to help us build a brand new facility, right? because he can't do the world-class modern toxicology laboratory work at this office that he's commanded to do. he can't have parents and families of people who want to know what happened on any
3:24 pm
incident be disrespected in the basement of the hall of justice and sometimes waiting for weeks, in fact, months to have some dignity for what happened h. you can't have sheriffs and other people waiting for the same reason. and you can't have less than professional standards operating in that office. and not only did we head up one of the best in the country for that office, we had this office. that's why i enjoy working with mohammed so much and the city administrator. we had this whole office and the chief medical examiner inform us about how to design this place adequately. that's with edgar and the k.m.d. actorra tects -- architects designed the building. when you involve the
3:25 pm
professionals, you are going to get a top-class product when you work with them at the top. and when we have the first-class responders of a world-class facility, then you're going to get that. but the real conversation is this: with supervisor cohen's support, with the entire board of supervisors, the conversation started back in 2010, where we want that conversation with the public -- what should we do better and be prepared better for? and they voted in a very strong, over 70% support for earthquake safety emergency response. and they did it twice in 2010 and again in 2014 when we asked that all of our police facilities, our stations, our fire stations, our department, our emergency response facilities get upgraded to withstand a major shake. now we have a world-class medical
3:26 pm
examiner's office that, for all of the reasons i said earlier, the public can trust. we did it, as mohammed said, on time and on budget. that's why i invest in public works. when we want to get something done, our board and mayor says let's get public works in charge and, with our city administrator, we get the job done. we also get the job done when we work with our partners in labor. and i must say to the carpenters' union, to the labors' union, thank you, thank you, thank you for making this such a safely built place, but also for your embracement of programs like city build and local hire. because there are 44 individuals from san francisco that help build this if facility with allf the work and that is a great
3:27 pm
milestone for the bayview community. because the saying says around here, if the community doesn't build it, nobody builds it. i know that's the feeling we accomplish right here in this building. and more an more of our public projects will always involve graduates of city build, local hire, the community. that's how we build things with the communities, with our own hands. it's not just these buildings. it's the downtown building. it's the chase arena for the warriors. when people say we built that, then 2010 and 2014 conversations with the public about general obligation bonds and all of the other financial tools that we have to have our voters vote on, they'll be that much happier. when we finish this project and i know our city administrators and our finance officers are really happy. when we retire debt, then we create even more room for the next bond programs. and the public will put trust in
3:28 pm
putting their votes in on that. not only did we do it in this fashion, as i said. we involved, yet, another examination that i think is becoming more and more important to the quality of work we do in these buildings. that was the art commission. the art commission got the first 2% out of this public project, the full 2%. and i know susan's really happy she -- she doesn't like the 1%. she likes the 2%. and she's done really well because i'm -- i haven't gone in and seen it yet, but we've honored and i know dr. hunter is really joyful to honor somebody that he's known throughout the country having been the historic medical examiner hex pert for the city, dr. boyd stevens. and i know his own coat is somewhere in there in some remnant in some classic fashion of art work. so we honor our historic
3:29 pm
leaders, as well as our art and art for this, for them that will work here and people that will visit here. it is about infrastructure. it is about first responders. it's about the first level of medical professionalism in the medical examiner world. it is about having a world-class forensic toxicology laboratory. that's a lot of scientific words. what it comes down to sometimes is we need to know what happened. we need to have scientific trust to it so that our trust and public knows what happened to a person, what happened to a family, what happened in a major event. we need to have it safely done in this building. these bonds are going to be important constantly. when we build on time and when we build within the parameters that the public expects us to do, they're going to give us a lot more support for our public
3:30 pm
bonds and for our public programs. so public works, city administrator, to all of you and the way you did this, thank you very much. let's get on with not only opening this and having people move out of the hall of justice as quickly as possible. if the courts were smart, they would not be at the state level. they'd be at the county level. so they've got to get them out as well because we need everybody to be out of the hall of justice, quite frankly. it's not a safe building. everybody knows that. so let's get on with building the world-class, safe buildings for all of our staff. but, ultimately, these are public buildings. we want to respect every role that the event plays. when the event hits we want everyone to be prepared. don't forget your 72.org. and that's what they wanted me to say. thanks for supervisor cohen, for the bayview community supporting
3:31 pm
this. it is not easy having a medical issue in your neighborhood. sometimes people have a little issue with some of these public functions in their neighborhood. but this was embraced for the right reasons. we'll have a lot more people down here who will be active in creating a higher level of safety for everyone. and i want to thank our police department. we've got a couple of our officers at s.f. general right now. i pray for them for a quick recovery. they're doing the work we ask them to do. community policing isn't easy. it's not easy these days with the opioid epidemic and, perhaps, some of the things the medical examiner is going to be engaged with. we need to support our public safety agencies because they're doing a darn good job to keep them safe. thank you, everybody, for supporting this. congratulations. >> thank you, mayor lee. i see ken bukowski. he was definitely instrumental
3:32 pm
in making sure all the monies were there and on time and thank him for this. i see our director, john updike, who has also been helpful in many of the projects that the city has been implementing, so thank you also. and i know you heard the mayor talk about those 44 individuals from the community that were able to work on the job. those 44 people actually represent more than 40% of the work force that actually worked on this job. so i want to give a good congratulations and thank clark for giving our residents an opportunity to build something in their own back door. it gives them jobs and they're able to take care of their families. and i know, you know, as you heard the mayor, it takes a village. so there are a lot of people who were involved in making these projects happen. and at this time i'm going to welcome our president of the board of supervisors, london breed. if you would.
3:33 pm
>> thank you, mohammed. thank you, mr. mayor. i'm really excited to be here today. when i first became a member of the san francisco board of supervisors, i would get e-mails and phone calls from people who were trying to find out exactly what happened when their loved ones passed away. they wanted closure. they wanted to know what happened. because of the if a will silts the medical examiners was in, we were almost at risk of losing our accreditation. this is why this building was born to build. this is why we needed to build quickly. and, yes. as the mayor said, we needed to move rapidly in getting people out of the hall of justice. we know that no one should be in that building. here we are a step closer to moving one of those departments at least out of that building and into a state-of-the-art facility. members sometimes will have to
3:34 pm
make that journey to this particular place in order to find out exactly what happened. and the great news is that they will have a warm, welcoming, beautiful facility, incredible public art. i think that the staff will probably feel a lot better, too, working under these conditions. so i'm excited about the future. i'm excited about what is to come. i think this is a step in the right direction. i wish it were raping money all over the place so we can do this for every city department we know needs to be out of the hall of justice. i know everybody shaking their heads right now actually work in the hall of justice. we're going to get to each and every one of you. because here in san francisco, we're really fortunate, as the mayor said, to have some generous voters. emwho say, you know, when we put something on the ballot, they support it. they know it's the right thing to do. the infrastructure project, all of the things that we need to do to make sure not only that our city is working today. we need to make sure it is working for generations to come
3:35 pm
yes, we're all upset over the congestion. yes, we don't like van ness avenue right now and a couple of other places. but at the end of the day, it's going to be even better. this is an example of what we can accomplish when we make these projects work for san franciscans. so thank you to each one of you. thank you to the department of public works, thank you to clerk. thanks for these folks who had the opportunity to work in their backyard. this is really amazing for the city today. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> thank you, supervisor breed. next we're going to hear from city administrator, city administrator actually chairs our planning committee. when these projects get delivered or they get conceived, they actually go through a serious vetting process. it is a process to approve them. it is through her leadership that these projects are actually
3:36 pm
able to happen. when we work on these projects. when we have challenges or we have concerns, we always have to make sure the city administrator knows what happened h. we're very thankful to the voters. there's only so much money. we have to finish these projects on time and on budget. under her leadership, we developed another one. welcome as city administrator. >> thank you, mohammed. i don't know if anyone said it yet, but welcome to the new medical examiner facility. >> and you heard the mayor and supervisor breed talk about the hall of justice. we are trying to decant the hall of justice so we can demolish that building. i was watching the historic movie, "bullet" with steve mcqueen in the late 60s. they filmed a lot of the scenes in the medical examiner facility. i thought to myself, oh, my goodness. nothing has changed 50 years
3:37 pm
later. i don't know if there was even an upgrade or renovation. it was exactly the same thing. look at how we've evolved over the last 50 years, new technology. we were skinnier around the waist so it was for skinnier people and it was undersized and didn't meet standards. and this is a project near and dear to the city administrators' hearts. it started for me in 2013 when i was trying to get this facility to be part of the easer program and with the director of public finance we were successful in convincing our capital plan colleagues to put this as part of the 2014easer bond, which went to the voters. it was a $64 million bond.
3:38 pm
i want to thank the voters because they moved forward with us to bring this new facility, so i just wanted to thank all of you for that. so we hit the ground running in 2014. what you may or may not all remember. i had an interim director of the office of the chief medical examiner. he was not a doctor. he was not a forensic pathologist. he was not a toxicologist. he was a great administrator while we started the international search to find dr. bukowskih. it started the design. i've been working with public work works when we worked with recruitment. and i found dr. hunter.
3:39 pm
i'm telling you i found you just in time, dr. hunter. we tried our best. when he came in, our input into the facility made it -- when you go on a tour, i think you'll see what a state of the art facility is and how lucky we are to have this building. it was a lot of your great input. so thank you, dr. hunter. when you tour this facility, supervisor breed touched on it. the family room. i mean, this is a time when you are grieving, especially when the families who come here, it is you'rely an unanticipated death, so you're in shock. and the family room in here compared to what was at the hall of justice was just -- it will change the experience. it will try and -- it will be more comforting and warming to what you're already going through. and then for those who are squeamish, like myself, at the hall of justice, i would take
3:40 pm
circiquitous routes to make sure that i didn't pass out. the flow of this facility is excellent. like i said, all of you will be very impressed when you go on the tour. i want to thank clark, public works, the contract monitoring division and city build. because you heard the mayor and the director say that we hit all types of goals with our local business enterprise goals and our local hiring goals. 6,100 working hours of local residents on this building, half of them from the bay view hunter 's point neighborhood. 34 of the construction crews were from san francisco. i want to thank all of your leadership throughout the city. so thank you very much and enjoy the tour. >> okay. we're almost there. we're almost there. as i hear her speak i remember working for the city one of my
3:41 pm
jobs was to maintain the hall of justice. can i tell you that facility with the news we just heard with the leadership of the board of supervisors and the mayor we are all moving out of there and delivering this facility. one thing at public works that we take very, very important is to work closely with our client and make sure that we deliver the state of the art project that our clients expect to have. and leading that effort is our chief medical examiner, dr. hunter. please come up and speak. [ applause ]
3:42 pm
3:43 pm
and i'm also impressed with the amount of dedication and hard work of mohammed's team at public works shepharding this project from infancy to completion and that is what we have here today. i would like to recognize two individuals that were dedicated to this project and really did get us to where we are today. they worked very closely with me and the finer points of this building, i think, is -- is due to that interaction. i do want to -- it's magdalina ryer in the crowd? okay. magadelena was the project manager who worked with the staff to ensure the design and
3:44 pm
construction of the facility completed as desired. completed as desired meaning that is not an easy thing to do. we want this facility to be functional now and functional in the future. we want it to work. so we were arm in arm with public works and magdalena did a fan taftic job of making that happen. and did an amazing job at that. i would like to recognize a member of my staff. christopher warziak who is my director of operations. and christopher is right next to magdalena over there. and at this point, i suspect a lot of you in the crowd know christopher. if you had anything to do with this project or had anything to do with the coordination and the move, you know who christopher is. he's been dedicated to the office. you no he him as a
3:45 pm
fierce advocate for the office, the medical examiner. he's worked tirelessly from the early stages of the building design to construction and finally to coordination to make sure that this all come shz together and works cohesively. i cannot fully express my gratitude to christopher, other than to say thank you very much for a wonderful job. lastly, i want to thank the residents for the city and county of san francisco for making this facility possible. thank you, san francisco. [ applause ] >> let's give another hand to the medical examiner's office. they work hard jobs. i mean, these are tough jobs. okay. our last speaker is from the san francisco public art program when we do projects in the city we are required to set aside some funding for art. and i think that it's a very good policy because, when we do
3:46 pm
these buildings, we are able to also add some beauty and some art to the project. and speaking on behalf of the arts commission today is susan pontiaz, who will tell us a little bit about the art in the building. and when you get to tour it, it is beautiful, beautiful art that reflects the neighborhood and reflects san francisco. welcome, susan. [ applause ] >> thank you. save the best for last. we are really lucky to live in a city that values art to beautify its public spaces like san francisco. but many of you, to be blunt, may be asking: with what is the role of art in the morgue? many members of the public, when they come and are here in the midst of decent and deep grief with no
3:47 pm
art. yet, it is prove than certain kinds of imagery can reduce stress and anxiety. this was our very special goal from the very onset of this project. our goal was to select art that contributes to a sense of calm, peace, and tranquility. it is part of the way that the city expresses compassion, and we are really proud to be a part of that effort. and i know all of the artists who participated are also proud to be part of that effort. so as you enter the lobby, the first piece you'll see is my murial axelrod. is murial here? yes. murial is right there in the purple sweater. she has created a beautiful collage inspired by the salt marshes and wildlife of india basin. the work was created with thousands of pieces of fabrics that the artist has carefully arranged, pinned, and sewn together.
3:48 pm
i invite you to take a close look. it is really amazing. some of the fabric that is in the birds, as merilee mentioned was a jacket worn by g. boyd steven who's served the city over 30 years as the chief medical examiner. there's also a collection of framed art works on the walls in the publicly accessible areas of the building. and these, woulds are all by san francisco bay area artists, inspired by the unique beauty and scenes of the bay area. the artists are in the collection, and i ask you to raise your hand if you're here. susie barnyard, who i know -- right behind me there. whose studio is in the bayview. elaine kummes, there. stanley goldstein, b url e landow. there is b url e and alan mazetti. they're way in the back.
3:49 pm
and coming soon to the landscaped area right behind me will be a large-scale sculpture entitled alma by sculptor, richard doitch. i don't know if richard is here student. the stainless steel sculpture is inspired by alma, a flat-bottomed schooner built in 1891 by fred seamer in his shipyard at hunter's point. at 22 feet tall, it will help identify this facility as a civic building and provide a major art asset to the community si also want to give thanks to all of the artists for their great, would. i want to thank project manager, mary chu, from our office, who was on the front lines making sure all of this -- coordinating all of this work to get into the building. i also want to thank other staff from our arts commission, jennifer lavorne, who is our
3:50 pm
senior project manager, and jennifer krane-doyle who is here as one of our registrars. i want to thank elaine from d.r.w., the project manager for all of their support in helping us realize this project. thank you very much. >> okay. so at this time we are going to cut the ribbon. and after the ribbon cutting, the facility will be open for tours for just one hour. so we'll go from 12:00 to 1:00. so if you are available or have time, i would encourage you to walk through it. it is a very beautiful state-of-the-art facility to seeing how things work through to how things flow from all of the labs that are up there to these capabilities to what this modern lab will do for us. so thank you very much for coming out today.
3:51 pm
i just really appreciate it. we look forward to delivering more projects on your behalf. thanks. [ applause ] >> countdown. >> ready. 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! whew! [ applause ] [music]
3:52 pm
>> (clapping.) >> in san francisco the medical examiner performs the function of investigating medical and legal that occurs with the city and county of san francisco from a variety of circumstances in san francisco there is approximately 5 thousand deaths annually i'm christopher director for the chief mr. chairman the chief my best testimony a at the hall of justice on 870 drooint street that is dramatically updated and not sufficient for the medical chairman facility i've charles
3:53 pm
program manager public works should a earthquake of a major are proportion occurs we'll not continue to perform the services or otherwise inhabit the building before the earthquake. >> we're in a facility that was designs for a department that functions and in the mid 60s and friends scientific has significantly changed we've had significant problems with storage capacity for evidence items of property and also personal protective if you're doing a job on a daily basis current little storage for prirjs are frirnlsz we're in an aging facility the total project cost forever ever commercial is $65 million the funding was brought by a vote of go bond
3:54 pm
approved by the voters and the locations is in the neighborhood the awarded contract in 2013 and the i'm the executive director we broke ground in november 2015 and that started with the demolition of existing facility we moved into the foundation and january so pile foundation and then with second construction of the new facility. >> one of the ways that we keep our project on time on budget and we're having quality to have regular meeting and the variety of meetings with construction process meeting as well as cost of control meeting and i'm a project manager for public works the office of chief commercial we want walk the project site when we sign up and
3:55 pm
also with a contractor insinuates for a change over we need to verify what or what was instead of. >> the building is 42 feet tall so it is two stories and 46 thousand square feet roughly we're that's a great question to be on time and budget have the roof complete a the exterior moving with the site work. >> and as you can see we've got a lot of the interior finishes installed. >> in an effort of an differentiate the facility that designed to work for 72 hours. >> not taking into account there was a lot of structural updates made into this building not seen in other construction throughout san francisco or other barriers we have friday morning examiners from 8 to one public comment monday to friday because of air circulation we literally have to shut the doors
3:56 pm
and so the autopsy is done without staffing being able to come and go or exit the space and literally lock down the autopsy in the new facility we have bio build one door opens and closed behind you you can gown up and go through a second seizures of doors that has its own independent air supply and now in the exterior opt space having that middle space have greater flexibility of staff as they move in and out of the area. >> in the current facility investigative unit has small tiny, tiny place in the area of the new facility is almost doubled in all divisions from the current facility and the new
3:57 pm
facility. >> the planning we have here gives them the opportunity to have the pool needs to complete theirs jobs in a much more streamlined fashion. >> we're looking forward to have secured parking to minimize the egress of you know visiting and the members of the public but really to minimize the investigators remaining remains from our advancing and so the facility. >> we have a new visitors area we're building that is a little bit more friendly to families. >> one thing you may notice in the room no windows there is no natural light not good for most autopsy but in the new facility at new hall we made that an objective they want to insure we were able
3:58 pm
to look up in the middle of exam and see the sky and see natural lights. >> that's one of the things the architect did to draw in as much light as possible. >> we have staff here onsite we insure the design of the new design enables the investigators and other investigators skiefksz to consider to house on site this meant we needed to design and plan for locker room facilities and shower rooms the ability to sleep. >> third of the construction going into the building has been by contributions of small businesses. >> part of the project is also inclusive to the sidewalk have all new sidewalks and new curve cuts and landscaping around the building we'll have a syrup in
3:59 pm
front of the building and rain guardian. >> the medical examiner's office has been a several if in their contributions of the understanding the exception and needs. >> it's a building that the chief medical examiner has been looking forward to quite a few of the. >> it is extremely valuable contribution to the, neighborhood address san francisco as a whole. >> the building will allow is to have greater very much and serve the city and county of san francisco and the neighboring
4:00 pm
>> good evening and welcome to the november 15, 2017 meeting of the san francisco board of appeals. the presiding officer this evening is president darryl honda, and also on the dais, we