commission hearing on august 1st of this year, which was on the budget, three of you were there, three of you were there, you might recall that mr connover noticed that that meeting was the action item for this project. it means that somebody could appeal from that day forward. we were told today, that today is the action item for the appeal. i want to point out there has been three stated action items on this appeal. that is confusing to the public because as you keep having to reappeal or resubmit what you're objecting to, things are constantly changing. the project has been diligently pursued by rank and park with full-time employees. those of us in the neighborhood who are not full-time employees are simply trying to respond to a project that is already in its very nature, complicated. to have three different action items, three different dates, is very confusing. i want to point out, ms. miss

gibson, in her letter to me, stated very clearly that the action item couldn't be at the historic preservation commission meeting, which was may 16th, because it really is supposed to be in sometime in the future due to be determined. when the entire concept of the project is considered. in fact, the notice of the public hearing of the historic preservation commission says that the historic preservation commission approval of the public hearing would constitute the approval action for the project. for purposes pursuant to san francisco code. finally, if you go to that section, which refers not at all to the rank and park commission nor to concepts, nor to any particular type of approval, it simply says that under definitions, this is the only

section of the ministry of code that tells us all of -- all as citizens. for all public projects determined to be exempt, that is what we were appealing. we are saying it is not exempt. all of these projects, the first approval of the project in reliance on the exemption, meaning the categorical exemption by a safety decision-making body, which we say is a historic preservation commission, at a public notice of hearing. and this historic preservation commission did rely on that exemption because they refer to it in their motion. they say because the city is doing this, we are now going to give you their certificate of appropriateness. it all fits together with the code. that is the basis of our appeal today. we point out that our first appeal should be accepted. thank you. >> clerk: is there anyone else would like to make public comment on this item.

>> my name is dale. i'm a member of friends of washington square and also telegraphed hill dwellers and north beach my neighbors. i spoke briefly the capital committee. one of the commissioners mentioned that he has never gotten so many e-mails over what he considered a water project. i would just like to speak to the emotional reaction in the community. there is some. you may hear others speak against it. i am the guy that suggested we get out and hand the flyers out at the northbeat -- north beach fare. i realized when i was with a member of the friends, their shut down the park and people would go crazy. it is a great deal. i have spoken to many groups and i have seen levi who has done a tremendous job in addressing these issues with the community

organizations. i have seen the correspondence every time something comes up. we are trying to address it. i have talked to people in the community. i have talked to individuals. nobody will come down here and say we are delighted about having the park shut down for six months. it is a huge, huge deal for that community. it really is. but when you understand the significance of it, what these improvements will do in the long term, they will support it. they will not come down here and speak, but the great majority support it. it is a case of courage and sacrifice and whatever you hear against it, i promise you, people will support it. we will get a lot of flack when it is closed, but let's have the courage to move forward. >> president buell: thank you. >> clerk: is there anyone else who would like to make public who would like to make public comment on this item? ok. if anyone else wants to, could

you please come forward now so we have you come on up? thank you. >> hi. i'm louise miller. i've been resident of north beach since 85. it is great that we are investing in washington square. it is a super place and it needs to get better. it -- i do have concerns about the timing. >> president buell: can you speak into the microphone? thank you. >> it is a very economically depressed neighborhood. there is nine closed storefronts on one block just off the square. in addition to that, there is all the other stories that are closed and to the residential area that was lost due to the fire. is a struggling neighborhood. i am not sure if this is a good time to be investing in closing the square and closing the plaza for the businesses in the neighborhood and the residence. may be the timing -- i think it was starting in march. it would be going right through the spring and summer.

that might be something that should be considered. and to think about the water that we pay for in the square, i am wondering if it is currently being maintained. the spring colours are at odd angles. at two in the morning on monday, there was one that was shooting at an angle? -- it was above head and there is such a force that it was some kids are playing as a slide on the pavements. it is not being maintained. it is a problem even before now -- between now and the spring. we should be looking after it right now and not letting it get worse. i wonder if the businesses around there have had enough time to consider and respond. there has been some residence to think that the economic impact will be worse and worse for the whole neighborhood. it is not just a square, it is the plaza too with the new condos that are being sold. i wonder about the schedule and

the budget for the playground that is being worked on there peerk that seems to be going on for a long time for such a small area. playgrounds take a lot of maintenance. they are doing a lot of work on it. it is a great thing too. they made a great playground in the street, but is that keeping to the original budget? is that keeping to the original squirt -- schedule? i think it is good, i just have concerns. >> president buell: thank you. >> clerk: ok. is there any other public comment? if not, we will be closing public comment. ok. being none, public comment is closed. >> president buell: commissioner mazzola? >> commissioner mazzola: is it and an r.f.p. you'll be or is park and recreation employees and d.p.w. employees doing some

of it? >> we will be bidding it out through standard public works contracts. it will be done under the one gc. >> commissioner mazzola: second question i had, was best value bidding. i'm not 100% familiar with that, but is that instead of taking the lowest bidder, you take the lowest responsible bidder? can you explain that a little more. >> this will be our first, this is a new contracting method. it has been in place for about a year. this will be our first project where we are utilizing best value bidding. public works has done it on a couple of projects to date. what you have is a component that is a standard low bid contractor submits their bid for the six month duration, and you get that. as you would do similarly to an r.f.p., we have noncost criteria where there will be three judges who will grade all of the bidders. so then there is a formula where

you divide the grade by the value and that gives you your ranking of the contractors. >> commissioner mazzola: cost isn't everything? >> cost isn't everything. >> commissioner mazzola: but the low bidder still will win after the judges make their decision? >> not necessarily. we could have a situation where, for instance, the second bidder got much better grades than the low bidder. so then that adjusted cost would have them win. the intent behind this is we get someone who grades really well and we are confident that they can execute this. will be putting a lot of focus on things like past project delivery, time, that kind of thing. >> commissioner mazzola: what is the major reason for doing it this way rather than the other way? >> in this case, there has been

a ton of concern about how long we are closing the park. this is just one more tool we have to try and ensure we get a really good contractor. i think if this works out well, we will start doing it more. it is new to the city to be doing it this way. >> vice president low: it is a project of legislation that the board pass and the mayor signed in 2016. and the city is going through a process now of evaluating contractor performance and a parcel of the legislation -- the ultimate cost of the bid is still a driving factor, but it is not the only factor. for example,, we know the neighborhood has concerns about the length of the park closure and, you know, the impact of

dust and certain other things on this very constrained space. to see how they respond to it. they need to pick up some more experienced contractors, even if they were not necessarily the lowest bidder. it is a rating system so the price is still a driving factor. i do not know, levi, if you know off the top of your head how it is weighted, but the answer, the qualitative criteria actually contribute to the score along with the quantitative criteria. >> we see the three factors that you add in their. will be see these? >> when i bring the construction contract. i can bring the full breakdown of how we graded it. >> commissioner mazzola: and you still consider there will be new stuff in the system? everybody is eligible to bid, at all other things being equal, a

lot of the other laws and statutes in our contracting system still apply, but it just means it is no longer appear low bid. >> thanks. >> president buell: commissioner low? >> vice president low: did make qualify where we are with the historical preservation commission and when they issue the certificate of appropriateness, did mr bruneau appeal this? >> yes. maybmaybe i should have lisa coe and give a little bit more. >> good afternoon back president buell and members of the commission. i am here to speak to the issue of the appeal that mr bruneau filed on the categorical exemption for the project. he appealed that as he stated correctly following the historic

preservation commission hearing. regrettably there was an error in the notification and in identifying the approval action for the project, for purposes of an appeal of environmental determination, the approval action is the trigger for when an appeal becomes timely. it is within 30 days of the approval action. so he filed an appeal following that, based on the language that we had in notice, subsequently, i responded to him that it was in error and today's hearing is the approval action for the project. the approval today, if the concept plan is approved by this body, the appeal would be time timely. i had communicated that to mr bruneau, and he is aware that his appeal already filed, would become timely, following approval if that occurs.

so we have learned from this that we need to improve some of our training and ensuring that we don't make those kind of errors in the notice. i do apologize for the confusion to the public. >> vice president low: what is on the agenda is only one action item, which is approval of the concept land. this is the triggering approval action that triggers the time. to file an appeal on the categorical exemption embassy of a? or just the categorical exemption? >> i do not know about the appeal periods. i am sorry about that. might area of expertise is on the environmental review. whatever timeframe there was for the appeal, i would have to differ on that one. but it is that today's action is, in fact the approval action for the project that triggers the appeal on the environmental review. >> vice president low: ok.

>> president buell: seeing no other questions, no other speakers, it is in the hands of the commission. should we entertain a motion? >> moved to approve. >> president buell: second. moved and seconded. so moved. >> clerk: we are now on reminder item nine which is off calendar. we are on item ten. the genieve carbine project time increase. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am the project manager for the car barn. today's action is the discussion and possible action to amend the contract with robot construction for the geneva powerhouse phase i project to extend to the schedule by 169 calendar days. it just a refresher, the phase i powerhouse project will renovate the powerhouse portion of the building, as well as surrounding site improvements across the

entire building frontage. the project was advertised in october 2017. the park commission approved a contract in november 2017 and a notice to proceed was issued to the contractor in april of 2018. there were some delays between the contract and ncp due to negotiations with the m.t.a. on the timing and space needs of the project within the actively used cameron beach train yard. this is not a request for additional funds. the original contractor was 210 days. after the construction started, it became apparent, due to the sequencing needs of the project, the sensitive rehabilitation and construction of historical and architectural elements within the building, and the constraints of the site and the m.t.a. train yard, that the contract duration for the project was insufficient for the contractor to complete the work. the proposed schedule has been reviewed by the scheduling team

for feasibility and compliance with city contracting requirements and if approved as part of the updated contract duration agreement with a contractor, there will be no additional extended overhead fees incurred by this additional time. depending commissioner approval, the project is on track to reach substantial completion by late march 2019, and final completion by may, 2019. >> clerk: is there any public comment on this item? being none, public comment is close. >> president buell: entertain a motion? >> so moved. >> president buell: moved and seconded. so moved. >> clerk: we are now on item 11. let's play this up.

>> good afternoon, commissioners. still good morning. i am lisa brandstetter. director of the recreation and park department. i am here to give you your twice a year update on the let's playsf! initiative. it is nice to come here and regroup on an initiative level and see where we are. just as a quick reminder, this project comes out of the park's bond that had a 15 and a half

million dollar pot of funding to remediate the city's most deserving playgrounds, and it came with a requirement to convene a task force to determine which playgrounds those would be. at the end of 2014, that task force presented the commission, and the commission approved a list of 13 playgrounds, that were approved for renovation based on the presence of copper arsenic in playgrounds would. the site or sights in low-income neighborhoods, and the sites located in neighborhoods dense with children. is 15 and a half million was not enough to renovate all 13 playgrounds. the park's alliance and the department agreed to partner on an initiative to raise private funds so all of these playgrounds could be renovated in a timely fashion. overall, i want to say, o. -- again contact us as a reminder, this is the map of the 13 playgrounds separated into tier

one and tier two, as directed by the task force. overall, i want to say we are absolutely thrilled with the progress to date. as of today, the commission has approved all six concept plans for the tier one playgrounds, and planning is in process for three other sights. the commission also approved them and i will skip ahead a little bit. the commission also also approved the donor recognition plan for the initiative, and that is just being implemented. we are excited to implement that. we know it will help a lot with the private elements. it also is a really nice elements of the program. it tells the story of a moment in time when the public and the private came together to fix these playgrounds. it really well marked these playgrounds all over the city.

it should be a nice addition to that project. then i will just take you quickly through a thumbnail of the concept plans that have been approved by commission. this is washington square, which is the playground that is in construction. we plan to open that in a few months, this fall. it should be a really nice, -- milestone for the initiative. >> president buell: will that stay open during the water project? >> yes. >> president buell: thank you. >> that will. and the bathrooms as well. sergeant mccauley playground in the tenderloin, allis chalmers

playground, this is the group picnic area at mclaren park, panhandle playground, and this is west portal playground which is a tier two playground but had to money other than bond money that we could use for the design of this playground. i like showing those altogether because it highlights the joy we are creating all over the city. though you've obviously seen all of those on a one-off basis. of course, we continue to run the project with a deep level of community engagement. we had more than 2400 touches of community members listing their opinions on these playgrounds. we've had 95 community meetings, workshops, focus groups and/or surveys to get the word out and gather information about what

each neighborhood wants in their site. as the schedule -- it is a little small and hard to reach, at the top is washington square. you will see the red line is where we are today. we do anticipate opening this playground in a couple of months. we expect to come to commission with a number of contract awards in the next couple of months before our next update in march. and my favorite part of the schedule is the middle to end of 2019 when we expect to open five more playgrounds. and then, just to talk through the budget, we flagged for you in our marked update that because, almost completely due

to the construction environment in the city, there is cost escalation in this initiative. we are expecting the total anticipated expenses to be just over $36 million. we have also found some public sources of money to fund this, but one of the remarkable elements is the park's alliance board last month voted to increase the private fundraising goal 214 and a half million dollars out of their deep commitment to getting every single one of these playgrounds done. this has been a really wonderful partnership, but we are very grateful to the park's alliance for taking a hard step in showing their deep commitment to this initiative. i will just add that we do believe this is a pretty conservative estimate.

it has very healthy reserves built and. we have gotten much better at cost estimating. we believe that the cost estimate for the tier two projects will hold and that the reserves will get us to where we need to be, if necessary. that is the summary of the project today. if you have any questions, i am happy to answer them. >> clerk: is. >> clerk: is there any public comment? >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am with the park alliance. we're so grateful to be working with the recreation and park department on this. it is an amazing opportunity to see neighborhoods transform with the input of the community. the designs reflect robust engagement efforts that we have done, hand-in-hand with the project managers, the design team and the park's alliance

staff, et cetera. they are beautiful and reflect these communities, while remaining conscious and conservative in approaching the budget in understanding the climate we are in right now. as lisa mentioned, our board recommitted to this campaign and we are excited to take on the challenge at head and really dive in to our efforts to raise the funding to support this. we look forward to furthering those efforts through the tier two playgrounds at identifying ways to identify -- engaged communities and transform these neighborhoods. >> president buell: thank you. >> clerk: is there anyone else would like to make public comment on the site and. being done, public comment is closed. >> president buell: commissioner mcdonnell? >> commissioner mcdonnell: oh, question. just a quick comment. having served on the initial task force to initiate this initiative is exciting to continue to see the progress on all fronts on the fundraising,

certainly, as well as on each of the projects and quite frankly, on a personal note, in particular, because the one that will cause my phone to ring from people like the pastor of the church and other family members is merced heights. if that could continue, that would be personally meaningful to me. >> commissioner mazzola: to the west portal playground, i have been up there. i live up that area. and looks like it was roped off and closed. as it closed until this starts, or not? >> no. i don't know anything about it. >> commissioner mazzola: you might have seen a court resurfacing above the tunnel? it had yellow tape and everything. >> vice president low: that could potentially been related to some of the muni tunnel work. >> nothing is closed. >> commissioner mazzola: i

want to make one observation. it is so impressive to see the amount of private philanthropy support for these projects. that doesn't happen by accident. it happens, in my opinion, because the parks are held in high regard by the city and that people feel comfortable investing in them. i don't think the enthusiasm would be there if it wasn't for the staff and the leadership of the park department. i just would be remiss if i didn't put all that together. thank you. >> we just want to recognize parts alliance for increasing their goal. it speaks towards the party and the parks, the party for the parks. coming up next month. >> president buell: the 15t 15th? thank you. thank you, lease sb nine we are now on item 12, which is general public comment continued from item for. if you would like to make

general public comment and you did not comment under item from farah, could you please come forward? being then, public comment is closed. we are now on item 13, closed session. is there anyone who would like to make public comment on closed session? being done, this item is closed. i need a vote on whether to hold closed session to confer with legal council regarding pending litigation. >> president buell: all in favor? so moved. >> clerk: i need to ask everyone to pl

>> clerk: communing -- communications, commissioners? public comment? public comment is closed. we are on item 17. adjournment. >> president buell: seconded. >> clerk: wait, wait. >> vice president low: i would like to make a motion to adjourn in memory of sean.

sean is physically the biggest cousin i have known. he had a big heart. sean lost lost his battle to cancer this past monday and while he lost to cancer, you want in life. he was rich in family, friends, and community. i know he is up there in heaven, probably giving aretha a big hug. in his normal hawaiian way, it is down to us and yelling "ohana" which is hawaiian for family. >> commissioner anderson: i wanted us to honor the great? of soul, aretha fink -- franklin as well. >> president buell: we adjourned in honor to the family. it has moved and seconded. all those in favor?

so moved. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. >> clerk: item 2, opportunity for the public to comment on any matters within the committee's jurisdiction that are not on the agenda.

seeing none, item three, election of chair and vice chair. >> hello. >> any nominations for election? >> sure. i'd like to nominate brenda to be chair, and vice chair, kristin. or should we do these one at a time? okay. i'm way ahead of myself. >> second the nomination of brenda for chair. >> i third it. >> note mr. hughes is in the room now. >> well, we saved him a seat. >> all in favor? [voting] >> and i'd like to nominate

kristin chu as the vice chair. >> second. >> second. >> all in favor in. [voting] >> good. thank you. any public comment on the election? seeing none, let's go onto the next item. >> item four, approval with possible modification of the minutes of the april 21, 2018 meeting. >> any public comment on the

meeting minutes? seeing none, move for approval. >> i move for the approval of the meeting minutes. >> i second. >> the minutes are approved. >> item five, presentation from the city services auditor regarding the c.s.a. work plan and possible action by the committee in response to such presentation. >> good morning, committee members. i'm the chief audit executive for the city services auditor of the controller's office and i'm here with my colleague, director of city performance, to provide a quick overview of our work plan. so just really quickly, as you know, the city services auditor was established by city charter. as you know we have pendic f

which lays out certain functions for city services to complete. we receive a budget set aside of 2/10 of 1% for the city's budget. we also receive g.o. bond proceeds amounting to approximately 2 million, and we have a total of 68 f.t.e.'s in the total organization. so this slide shows the large department that covers our general bond. functionally, c.s.a. has two units. so we have audit, and we have city performance to ensure that we fulfill the charter mandate

for appendix f. as it relates to our work plan process, it's actually driven by your charter and administrative code. we also do risk analysis, and we receive information or requests from our executive leadership as well as our department, and we have our bond and capital programs, as well, that dictate our work plan. >> tanya ran through that really quickly. you're familiar with our planning process and mandates, but ask us questions at any time. these lists our charter requirement, which you are familiar with. we are now growing ourlene program, and that's probably or biggest single addition to the capablity of our unit in the last couple of years. we were training a lot of city staff inlene methodology and then training our department to

do processing with departments citywide. the others, you are familiar with. i will note also the data academy, which is a training program to teach city staff basic software that they need for their jobs in a very simple format, and now we teach them more complex things, and we're really proud of that. we hit the three year mark -- the five year mark in three years in trying to grow that program. again, just to touch on a couple of our major projects. you saw a project of our work land discussion in our may meeting. between then and now we've finished out the process that tanya just described. we've finished our balancing. we'll touch on some other

things in a little bit. department of public health, probably the biggest single technology acquisition that the city's doing over the next couple of years are electronic health records. we're working with them on that. at the transportation agency, we're just finishing a program which tries to simplify and stream line the public noticing process. we're supporting the city's capital planning department with a number of moves and changes and new building sites, the ongoing work to empty the ha hall of justice, and a permit center at 49 south vanness. our performance program, you've seen the growth of it in recent years. the on with the new mayor, we are interested in meeting with her and her staff on how she'd like to move forward. we're assuming just in

preliminary discussions that they're going to be taking some of the indicators that were shown in the score cards and starting a process across city agencies to move those things forward. she's very well aware of our program. we mentioned the data academy, and then, the department of homelessness and supportive housing now entering its you third year of existence, right, and we're still under the mandate, as are all city agencies getting this up fit up as quickly as possible, helping them with challenges like the new software system that they're undertaking, building sites. again, there's a lot of work that we can do to help that work go successfully. very important kriss cal important and a kriss cal leadership position for everyone in the city. and then i'll hand it back to tanya to talk about audit programs. >> good morning again. just to adequately ensure that audits promote best practices and accountability, support

informed policy divisions, this represents a balanced portfolio of work based on risk. and the result of our work is high quality audits that conform to best practices. as our operations have become more complex, diverse, existenter connected over the years, our work plan has also grown to be more complex and robust that grow to involve multiple agencies across functions citywide. so for example we've developed our ongoing construction and capital audit program involving our chapter six departments to reflect the city's increasing investment in capital projects. we've completed numerous varied construction audits, close outs, change orders, along with risk assessments. we've also created our information technology cyber audit team to proactively assist departments in

identifying improvements for safeguarding our critical i.t. systems and information, regulatory compliance and redundancy. to shed more light on critical multidepartment light processes and associated risks, our work plan incorporated performance audits that involve multiple agencies to reflect the complexities and interconnectedness. so this just gives a broad stroke overview of how our work at c.s.a. audits have changed since i've been here. i'll discuss it a little more in depth. so in this coming year, we will be performing a number of construction audits. as you know, this committee has asked us to do audits of the bonds to ensure that our bond spending is in compliance with the voter mandate, and with that, we've enlisted the

services of comings. and in the past year, cummings has completed five g.o. bonds, and this coming fiscal year, we'll be doing four more g.o. bonds, and we'll be performing a large performance audit at m.t.a. on their capital program delivery. in our citywide compliance program, the overall goal of that program is to look at compliance, internal controls, and benchmark against best practices. so as you can see on our slide we'll touch on processes such as purchase cards, payroll procurement cash and so on. and we're conducting audits of nonservice providers to ensure that departments are properly monitoring our nonprofit organization contracts.

we are currently conducting a performance audit that spans across seven departments regarding citywide monitoring practices for nonprofit organizations, and that audit will be begun, more than likely, at the latter part of the fiscal year. we will continue with our performance audits as it relates to the mandates audits that are mandated by the administrative code such as political activities and franchise fees. we look at whether departments are complying with policies, procedures, are doing their work in an economical, effective manner, but also, we want to look from a perspective of forward thinking. and so we do that through our surveys and through our benchmarking of leading practices in the relevant areas to help our departments think about how they should go forward and to ensure that our recommendations are sound and to help city operations become

better. so we'll be conducting audits around fees and permits as well as looking at the ethical culture of the health inspectors. we'll be implementing a citywide inspections program at fire, at planning, and at building, and we'll also be looking at the ethical culture of our inspectors this coming year. we're going to be looking at the staffing of homeless shelters, citywide i.t. procurement and public health city option program, and we will have a divisional audit at the p.u.c. over their real estate department. as it relates to our information technology and cyber security work, we do that work in collaboration with our department and other stakeholders, and we also work in collaboration with the department of technology with the city information security officer. and so we'll continue our work

around security and information controls audits across the city as well as continuing with assisting with post implementation services with the new financial and procurement system. and as peg mentioned, the procurement department has the largest procurement ever from an information technology perspective in the city, and we'll also be working with the department of public health around that implementation. and you'll hear later more about our whistle blower program, which is on my slide. we'll continue with our follow up process. the value in an audit is not the findings, but it's actually the implementation of the recommendations, and so we really work hard to ensure that we have a robust follow up process. we follow up at every -- at six month intervals to ensure that departments are implementing our recommendations. and i'm proud to say that our recommendation rate is 98% of our recommendations over a

two-year period. and we will continue with assisting with disaster recovery, and most of our work, when we're having a disaster or the city is assisting with other disasters, we're ensuring that our records are intact and we're able to receive back the -- recover our costs as it relates to the services that our city has provided. and we're also doing audit work to support the department of police accountability, the ethics commission, and at the police department. >> so that's a lightning quick run through of our work plan. the narrative, which is published on the website, has a high level summary and major service area topics of our planned work. there's a table in the back which is the largest, i think 100 audits and projects by size, the number of staff hours

we expect those things to take, but just to remind everybody and for the public's benefit, the detailed work plan that is underneath that is a couple of hundred lines of different audits and projects that are linked to the work orders that are in our budget and each of the assessments and risk analysises that tanya mentioned. we're happy to answer any questions that you might have on the -- either the general level or the detail level of those and discuss it if we have an audit that needs or a project that meets a concern or an issue that you raise. we might have something in our work plan. we've certain tried to fit what we do to the go box interest and mandate. one other project that i would mention in that vein is we do a wrap up of general obligation bonds which i may remember from last year. we made a number of improvements to it, and you include it as an attachment to your annual report, which has

scope schedule and budget for all g.o. budget programs. it services our program purposes and serves yours, as well. so i'll just stop there and ask if you have any questions or feedback if you've had a chance to look at the work plan, and we're happy to respond to anything that you'd like to raise. >> yes, do you want to give a few words and then the liaison report? skbl i can be the liaison to the c.s.a. i think we're at a $9 billion organization -- or 11 -- $11 billion organization, and i think it can be hard to make these types of decisions in an organization this big. and i really applaud the thoughtfulness of the group in making these. they're not just sort of throwing darts at things, they're actually following a specific process year over

year. i think that process and the work of the group has resulted, in my opinion, is a very successful body of work coming out of both the audit side and the permit side, and so i'm more than happy to endorse the work plan for this year. >> any other comments? >> i would like to make a few comments. i would like to echo what we just heard, that this has been a very successful effort on the -- for the audit committee. i think the city is lucky to have the kind of leadership that it does of all of you that are working on this. i think what i have seen is a growth in the approaches that you've taken to performance and audits. the issues that i've been

focused on more recently is that most of what we do, we approach as a city from the agency perspective. we look at how departments are functioning and what their mission is and how they're leading those missions. and that's the right thing for the city to do to ensure that the taxpayers are getting their worth, and there's another perspective, and that's taking it from the direction of the citizens. so for example, if you're looking at the hall of justice, the capital improvement plan, has -- is there a process for input on what's needed from the standpoint of people who use that facility, not just the people who work there and whose job involves that? for example, for years there's been a hard time getting child care facilities at the hall of justice, and yes juror expect to show up and have a place for their children while they're doing that, and there's been an

actual resistance to all of th that kind of stuff. when you're looking at disaster recovery, part of that is going to be right off the beginning, as you know, is going to be estimating what the costs are for replacing and repairing things that have been damaged. in '89, when i was involved in that earthquake recovery, the big issue was of course residential properties that were damaged, and the need to decide whether or not someone could go back into those properties, and there were not enough city building inspectors to go around and do that. so essentially we deputyized private building inspectors to go through and decided whether the situation would warrant someone briefly going into their house. so that makes me think when we look at disaster responses, are we training private building inspectors so that they're ready to go in the event of an

earthquake, because you don't have any advance notice that it's going to happen. so those are the kinds of things that come up when you're looking at it from the perspective of the person who needs the services as opposed to the people who are providing the services. so i had a list of some examples that are cost cutting in some ways for specific subpopulations. i used disabled and seniors, as one. i used women as another, about what's happening to minorities and to african american populations in the city, declined from 12% to 5%, and what do we see about what the city has provided either in housing inspection for the quality of housing that people have or their transportation to get the jobs or their schools or whatever. there's a whole lot of things. so my hope was that in today's meeting, you would take from us

or my colleagues would concur, a request to come back with some is proposals more specifically tailored to a perspective of the residents in a cost cutting way. you've made a lot of steps in that direction, and you sent me an outline of what those are like, and they are -- they are good, but they are -- continue to be focused from the departmental perspective as opposed to the citizen perspective, and there are not too many places, other than here, where citizens have an opportunity to come and speak and raise those issues. so that -- that's my proposal, is that we ask for inclusion of cost cutting, citizen oriented reviews. >> any other comments? i think robert, you had a

comment. >> well, i -- again, from -- i just go back and look at the mandate for go box authority or role or oversight of the c.s.a. it seems like it's a limited scope to review benchmarks, review whistle blower issues and review audited. to the extent those efforts cover the citizen input, i -- you know, we can look at that. but i just -- i'm not sure i quite understand what that would mean or what specifically we're asking the controller's office to do with respect to our authority under the charter mandate. >> as i understand the establishment of the c.s.a., it was part of dissatisfaction with the city's performance on streets and sidewalks and

parks. and so the proposal came originally from the chamber of commerce to ed harrington, and he outlined a program for auditing that included specifically those areas, and then, sort of an add on, whatever else. so if you look at it from the genesis of this, it was very focused on the infrastructure of the city. it was not focused on the services of the city, except in the broadest sense. and so what i'm saying is that here, we have gone now since, what was that? 2002, something like that, so a decade and a half. a lot has changed in the city, both in terms of how many things the city needs to provide and in terms of the population that we have. and also, for the first time since 2002, we have a major change in the leadership of the city. this is the first mayor we've had who has come from a district election where they've

worked closely with residents in a particular neighborhood. the first time since that time that we have a board president who comes from a district that has income inequality and housing challenges and job challenges. and then, we also now have the city controller just reappointed to a new term. so it is a time to take a deep breath and just step back and see, do we want to look at this from a higher level. that's all i'm asking. >> my observation, mr. bush, is that while -- while the points you make are worthy to be explored. i also heard mr. carlson's comments reminding this committee our very specific function as related to what, you know -- relating to our responsibility. so i -- my comment and my take

is that while these may be varied issues, and the timing, mr. bush, you mentioned, i think this may be a time for the city -- some aspects of city government to be looking at this, but i don't really think goboc is the best vehicle to explore these because our mandate is very specific. so i think if you have a wish to explore these changes to c.s.a.'s function, this -- this is not the right venue to do so. i think you go to the board of supervisors to change these -- these responsibilities or to increase these additional aspects of audit and performance done by the controller's office. >> i don't see anything in the

charter that precludes us from taking these steps. i think that you're taking a very limited view of what the language -- i don't think we're precluded -- when we say we're going to do performance audits, what are we exactly auditing? and i'm not even suggesting that i have the answers or even know exactly where it should go. i'm sure asking that the c.s.a. staff come back and give us their ideas on what else they see they might add. >> so just a suggestion which might help. i had sent a couple of example doe s, where i agree the opportunity to work in an interdepartmental way is one of the huge advantages of our function, and we try to take that seriously and staff things which need staffing, the healthy streets outreach center was the example that i had e-mailed where this is all the departments th departments that are working

together, and the intersecting service and resource demands that are represented by that. there's a new operational function at the 1011 turk street. we're providing the staff and measurement resource support so that they're able to measure what they're doing, show result. this is an example of the interdepartmental work, citizen focused work as well. i guess probably the example that pops up in my mind is the work that we're doing for the permit center, which is very explicitly to be designed from the city and user point of view. when you come into the new place that the city will build in a couple of years, what's your perspective, but understanding how the users are going to interact with that space and use it as a permit center. so i think we're doing a lot of things that meet this concern. i guess one suggestion i had which might help bring the