>> sfgov-tv. we're ready to begin. >> president mccarthy: today is wednesday, march 18, 2020. this is the regular meeting of the building inspection committee. i remind everyone to turn off electronic devices and the first item on the agenda is roll call. president mccarthy? >> president mccarthy: here. >> clerk: commissioner moss? commissioner clinch. commissioner jacobo. commissioner tam. commissioner alexander-tut. we have a quorum and our item is item 2. president's announcements.

>> president mccarthy: good morning, everybody. just moving -- everything is moving parts here. i just wanted to have a few words to read into the comments and to my president's announcements. i'm confident and dedicated -- i am confident that the dedicated and hard-working staff throughout the department of building inspection are aware of the response to the people of san francisco and will continue to do their duty and uphold the public trust which they've been doing in the last week. as you know we're dealing with, you know, a public health emergency in our city. and our state and country, that we have never, never had to encounter before. on behalf of the commission, i urge all d.b.i. staff and customers to follow the instructions under public health officials and to do their part to prevent the spread of covid-19. i applaud the department for taking steps to limit the virus spread such as increase social distancing between the customers and d.b.i. staff, and the more

frequent cleaning of commonly shared public services. continue to pay attention to all of the public health instructions and take all of the possible precautions for your own health and your loved ones. be proactive and help to keep each other safe. and that concludes, madam secretary, my comments. >> clerk: is there any public comment on the president's announcement? seeing none, our next item, item 3, general public comment. matters within the commission that are not part of this agen agenda. >> good morning, my name is

jerry grantler. the resignation of tom huey in the march 12th stories about the city's expanding probe of former president and instructial engineer rodrigo santaz are clear indicators that an outside investigation of the department is long overdue. my interest in d.b.i. began in 2012 when i served on the civil grand jury that wrote a very unfavorable report on the department. i have attended b.i.c. meetings for the last seven years. it's difficult to monitor projects like the rodrigo santaz prctses mentioned in the city's lawsuit. this lack of transparency is by design. an outside investigation needs to focus on the department's lack of internal controls and

weak building code enforcement process. current code enforcement penalties are not a deterrent. 98% of the penalties issued are below $1,000. $1,000 is the cost of doing business. d.b.i.'s weak internal controls are present by design, not by accident or lack of funding. d.b.i. has sabotaged the installation of new computer systems that would have made the department's practice of favoring a few individuals more difficult and visible. d.b.i. failed to implement a system that would have eliminated the current process where contractors, expeditors and instructional engineers get to select the d.b.i. engineer to review and issue their building permit. if you had the choice, would you pick your buddy? humadic is similar to the process by the california d.m.v.

to randomly assign customers to counter employees. d.b.i. also sabotaged the implementation of asela. when you drill down into mr. santos' projects you find that it was the same small group of d.b.i. employees who should not have approved his building permit ove over-the-counter and field inspectors who should not have approved the final inspections. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you. so president mccarthy, i believe that there needs to be -- >> president mccarthy: so because of the nature of this meeting today, we're going to remove some items from the calendar, if that's acceptable to all commissioners, please speak up if you have any concerns. do we do just a point of

order -- do we still have to do the commissioner's issues and matters, do we still do that, or just items on the calendar. looking for clarification? >> you asked whether it's required that we do. >> president mccarthy: that we remove that. >> you can move to remove it for today's meeting. >> president mccarthy: commissioners, do you want that to remain on the calendar to weigh in -- (indiscernible) okay. number five, i have a request to leave number five on and i wondered what you might have thought about that as a quick discussion and move that forward because of the calendar that's on. and then we can -- if i'm correct we could do public comment on this again if we needed to though we have moved it out of our commission, is that correct? >> city attorney rob capla. if you feel that you have enough

time to move it forward, the board of supervisors, where there would be more process, you could do that. and you can also schedule a time to take public comment on it in the future but you wouldn't be able to rescind the recommendation to move the item forward. >> president mccarthy: okay. so, obviously, 6 we'll take off the calendar and move to the next available hearing. and then, obviously, we would keep the closed session which we would do last. and then pretty much remove all of the business off the calendar, if the commissioners today have any comments? >> clerk: do we have a second? second? >> so there's a motion and a second to remove all of the items or -- >> president mccarthy: except for 5, we will leave 5 in which we discussed now and number --

where am i -- 5 and 9. thank you, commissioner. >> clerk: so there's a motion and a second to remove -- except for items 5 and 9. do a roll call vote. president mccarthy. vice president moss. commissioner alexander-tut. commissioner clinch. commissioner jacobo. commissioner tam. that motion carries unanimously. i'm going to read item 5 just for the record. i initially thought that the

item would be continued. but all of you have received all of the correspondence and there was additional public comment that you have received as well. okay, so item 5, discussion and possible action regarding a proposed ordinance, repealing ordinance numbers 38-17 and 102-19, and re-enacting certain provisions by amending the administrative code to update the hotel conversion ordinance including adding a redefining of definitions of low-income household and procedures to convert units and harmonizing the fees in addition to other requirements. this is continued from the meeting. >> president mccarthy: do we need to discuss. >> i want to thank the

commission for tabling it until today or continuing it to today. i talked to the community group whose appreciated having time to review this and they're all in agreement with moving forward. thank you. >> president mccarthy: if i see no more comment on it, -- >> city attorney rob capla. there's a request to be read into the record. >> president mccarthy: is that the letter from mr. zach friedman? yeah, okay. >> this letter is from zach friedman and patterson, a public comment, dear president mccarthy and honorable members of the building inspection commission, our office represents the s.r.o. hotel coalition, hotels, and other individual owners of s.r.o.s who will be affected by this proposed ordinance. in light of yesterday's shelter

in place order and the serious public health risk of covid-19 we reject to this hearing taking place without public participation as required by the ralph m. brown act. neither my clients nor attorneys or other concerned members of the public can violate the order and risk their health to attend this hearing. this hearing must be pro postponed. and including reacting the record in real-time and the statements by city staff and other members of the public. this is not an imminent matter. and this could be accomplished without the proposed new amendments contained within this ordinance. these amendments are not urgent and do not affect any government function as defined by the order. we respectfully request that this hearing be postponed until the shelter in place order is lifted and we reserve the right to have additional arguments and materials in advance of the final hearing on this matter. thank you, for your krrs, very

truly yours. so that was the public comment. and is there any additional public comment here? seeing none. is there a motion on this item? >> president mccarthy: we do need to make a motion to approve. i move to approve. >> clerk: a second? >> second. >> clerk: there is a motion and a second. i'll do a roll call vote. president mccarthy. yes. vice president moss. yes. commissioner alexander-tut. yes. commissioner clinch. yes. commissioner jacobo. yes. commissioner tam. yes. the motion carries unanimously. our next item is item 9, public employee appointment. director of building inspection. discussion and possible action to appoint director of building

inspection. 9a, public comment on all matters pertaining to the closed session. >> good morning, my name is dray grantler. if the commissioner is looking for an interim d.b.i. director my suggestion is the former deputy director rosemary vosk who is an attorney. and who is thoughtful and has good leadership skills and knows the department. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you. there was also additional public comments submitted via email by last name of mr. white, mrs. white and i have submitted that to all of the commissioners. so they have all received it as well.

our next item is item b, possible action to convene a closed session. is there a motion to convene closed session? >> i'd like to make a motion to convene closed session. >> second. >> clerk: are all commissioners in favor? any opposed? we are now in closed session. it is 10:24

>> we should be back. >> hello, this is building inspection commission meeting resuming. we are on item 9(d), reconvened in open session to vote on whether to disclose any or all discussions held in closed sessi sessi session. there is a motion to reconvene. >> i move to reconvene. >> second. >> there is a motion and a second to reconvene in open session. we are now in open session. >> all in favour? >> aye. >> our next item, is there anything to disclose?

>> absolutely. thanks for everybody's patience here. we had a really good discussion here and a lot of commissioners' thoughts for the future were brought up and what's going to be needed, particularly for this department, which i concur for everything. obviously, mr. weir, we unanimously approved you to step in as acting director through this difficult period. as a commission, we thank you for stepping up and doing that. >> to be clear, we've acted to appoint mr. riddin interim director. >> we had a debate about interim and acting. interim director. so if you are acceptable, you can come to the mic. officially you could accept the position for us and that would satisfy us, correct.

>> thank you. >> good morning again, commissioners. thank you for appointing me as interim director. while i am deeply grateful for your expressed confidence in my leadership of d.b.i. during what can only be called extraordinary times, i want to assure you that ours will continue to be a team effort and will continue to involve indeed depend upon the supportive dedication, commitment of building safety and professionalism we are proud to have in our d.b.i. employees. we have terrific staff who work enthusiastically every day to ensure building and safety codes are observed in the letter of the laws behind them. thanks to our engineer reviewers and all the code enforcement inspectors. we know that structures are

built to constantly improving standards. and thus as these construction methods can deliver for everyone who lives, works, and recreates inside these buildings. i take this responsibility you're giving me and i will do everything i can to fulfill your expectations and to provide the department with the leadership needed during these times of public health challenges. we will continue to do everything we can as a department to meet the mayor and board of supervisors' ongoing leadership efforts to build more housing that is safely constructed for all, especially for our city's most vulnerable populations. thank you again for the honor to serve as department's interim

director. i will certainly do my best to work with the commission, all city departments, the mayor and board of supervisors and city employees and continue to provide energy, leadership, and professionalism in all areas of building safety in the city of san francisco. >> thank you. good luck. [ laughter ]. >> commissioner, please. >> just a quick thing here. i just want to thank our c.f.o. for stepping up to the plate in our time of need at that time as acting director. >> big second on that. >> i move to adjourn. >> second. >> go home, everyone. >> all in favour. >> aye. >> we're now adjourned. it's 11:46 a.m.

>> mayor breed: good morning. are we still in the morning? good morning, everyone. thank you all for joining us today. i am san francisco mayor, london breed. i am joined by a member of the board of supervisors, supervisor aaron peskin as well as doctor grant coa colfax, police chief t and fire chief nicholson as well as other officials. we are definitely practicing social distancing by having at least six feet apart from one another in this location, but also this virtual press conference is an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of behavior we want to see happening all

over the city. we want to thank members of the press for their patience and for accommodating the change in order to help protect and keep them safe as well. we also want to thank members of the public because we know for the most part so many in san francisco have really stepped up and really focused on social distancing and also helping to support and educate neighbors and other people as to what is most appropriate to do during this time. i know that we often times refer to social distancing as saving lives. i want to be clear that it will save lives. if we continue to practice social distancing every single day during this stay at home order, we will get to a better

place. as doctor colfax has said it is a challenging time. the numbers are increasing as we do more testing. we know as we said in the last press conference that we will need more beds and more ventilators ashmore support. what you are doing by socially distancing and staying at home and only going out for essential services you are reducing the number of people infected. thank you all for everything that you have done to help us get this far. i know it hasn't been easy. we still have a lot more time ahead of us than we do behind us. your patience during this very challenging time is definitely appreciated. i want to start by providing an update on some real positive

information that we just received because, sadly, we know testing is very limited in san francisco. the department of public health have been able to administer now 150 tests each day. that did not include the private hospitals, and this is information we will receive sooner rather than later. we expect to increase the number significantly. doctor colfax will provide an update on testing and how we expect to extend our testing efforts more significantly than we have in the past. the good news on that front is now thanks to kaiser and blue shield, we will be able to provide testing for the healthcare workers on the front line working with patients who have been infected as well as

many public safety officials, firefighters and police officers and those on the front line. we will prioritize them for testing. we know so many of them are very concerned they are doing the work in the community. they are trying their best to save lives. they live in fear if they have the virus and they are concerned with going home to spread that virus to the family. getting the ease of knowing if they have the virus is critical to protecting public health and safety. we will prioritize public health and safety officials for testing. the doctor will talk about that more as well. i want to just also mention to the public that although we want to be tested. i know