>> this is the regular meeting of the building inspection commission. i would like to remind everyone to please mute yourself if you're not speaking. the first item on the agenda is roll call. president mccarthy... [roll call] >> clerk: we have a quorum. and the next item is item 2. president's announcement. >> president mccarthy: good

morning, and welcome, everybody, to the building inspection commission meeting, december 2020. sonya, can everyone hear me? doing a sound check, okay, good. i'm the president of the building inspection commission and i am joined today by my fellow commission members along with the director patrick o'riordan and the senior d.b.i. staff. as reported recently by mayor breed and public health directive, the city is unfortunately experiencing another increase in covid cases and hospitalizations. resulting in more restrictive city-wide measures. that will hopefully once again successfully reduce the pandemic infections and the hospitalizations. covid-19 remains active in our community even though yet we now have a federal, state approvals of vaccines and thus yet there is definitely light at the end of the nearly year-long covid of

pain and loss. until the vaccine production and distribution are more advanced, i continue to urgently ask the customers and the public to support our ongoing need to follow all health protocols. which remain essential for the public health and safety. it is essentially important for our customers to follow protocols when they come to 49 south van ness to drop plans or apply for non-planned permits on. behalf of the commission i thank all of our customers in advance for their diligence and ongoing support and, again, i thank d.b.i. leadership and staff for their ongoing heroic work during this complicated and still threatening circumstances. i also want to respond to the arts guild in the chronicle

titled "san francisco building department is a mess." not only was i frustrated with such an infactually in my opinion incorrect piece, but i also felt for the employees who have overcome so much in these difficult times. i wanted to address inaccuracies in the article and correct the record. we all know some changes have -- we all know that some charges have been filed against high-profile department heads but they were from other departments. no one name or face defines our department. the -- excuse me, the mission was mentioned yet again, and despite the fact that the records show that d.b.i. performed well. this permit set in planning for eight months and is currently right now under review by the department of public health.

while these delays are very unfortunate, this is not a building department issue contrary to the quotes in the article. d.b.i. does not have -- does have -- excuse me -- does have an online system. our system allows anyone to check on the status of any plan checking permit or complaint online. the article uses an example and when i looked into it further i discovered that there was a notice of violation for working without a permit. this work was triggered -- this work triggered a.d.a. standards which are hard -- really hard -- for small merchants to comply with. these are not d.b.i. standards, these are federal standards. in recent weeks i have watched the board of supervisor sub-committee hearings and listened to the conversations about prohibiting permit expediters. while i agree with much of what they are trying to accomplish, i

respectfully disagree with the directions that they are going about it. >> we lost you there, we can't hear you. >> president mccarthy: the building -- can you hear me guys still? yeah? can you still hear me? >> yeah. >> president mccarthy: the state building code -- let me start here -- the permit process is complicated. the state building code has over 6,000 pages. and in addition the san francisco amendments add another 1,000 pages. each year our approval process has become more and more entangled with complexity by our legislative body trying to respond to our ever evolving society and needs. it was only a few weeks ago that

the all electric building legislation was passed. this new law will bring with it an array of new challenges for both the department and our customers, but as a city that holds itself to high values, this department must move forward and adapt to meet the needs of customers who will face these new complexitys and challenges. these complex codes, while some hire permit expediters, but the process needs to stay open, transparent and accessible to the general people who choose not to hire an expediter. i feel very strongly that we can do more to achieve this goal. i was hoping that we would have had this conversation back in march, but, unfortunately, it has been all hands on deck in the department with covid-related issues. at some point in 2021, when we

get through covid, i would like this department to present a report to the commission about ways to improve the user experience and provide as much transparency on the permitting process as possible. a few examples -- and i want to stress that i'm open to any and others are -- a plan to create a d.b.i. as a concierge program to provide the public with the same advantages as those who hire permit expediters. a team to assist and explain the nuances of plan checking to those who need assistance. i would also like to have a liaison to attend the weekly planning commission to help to explain building department codes and policies and identify conflicts between building codes and planning codes. we are also in the midst of developing a new process whereby

those who have previously violated permit laws in the past undergo rigorous plan check review process. i also think that we should implement a strong media presence to educate and to inform the public with what we do and help to break down the negative perceptions. i recommend that the management assign a liaison who would reach out to every board supervisor for routine updates so we can keep the lines of communication open and transparent between our services and our customers. and, finally, we need to revisit, restart, and reengage on finding a better online system where the other system failed us. 2020 has been remarkably tough year for all san franciscans. we have an opportunity to use

2021 to do better. let's embrace what we have learned and improve on our weaknesses. madam secretary, that concludes my president's announcements. >> clerk: thank you. is there any public comment on the president's announcements? >> there is one public comment. >> clerk: okay. then on the president's -- just one moment. >> hello, henry? >> caller: yes. >> you're unmuted. go ahead. >> caller: okay, great, thanks, thank you. good morning, commissioners. my name is henry camilois, a

caster of d.b.i. for over 45 years. through this year the interim director o'riordan took over the reins of d.b.i. faced of the challenge of moving to a new building. in no time we were hit with covid and that was really making it difficult to keep issuing permits on the calendar. however, thanks to the interim director o'riordan, the assistant director and everyone at d.b.i., the process continues as best as it can considering the circumstances and, yes, it has been a struggle. recently an article came out in "the chronicle" about a past member -- of not only the planning commission -- but also the building inspection commissioner that had wanted to build a gazebo in the backyard. she was claiming to get a permit from d.b.i. i'm appalled and i find it difficult to believe that she was unaware what the process was. and yet she could have built a gazebo not exceeding 100 square

feet and eight feet without a permit. d.b.i. is absurd, and the permit is sending out invitations for appointments (indiscernible), however, once an application is filed it seems to languish. i don't know if it's done as a team or not, but the agenda should be prioritized and it would be good to have a team that does just that. interestingly, i'm finding the planning and processing of applications in a matter of days and from d.b.i. i'm told that it's three months if i even get a response to an inquiry. lastly, thank you president mccarthy, for the extraordinary presentation. you are right on. this process is getting so complex, it's hard for us -- even architects to go in and process a permit, no matter which department you want to go to. i have been doing this for many,

many years. i remember the days where, you know, you could walk in and it was really, really simple. no longer. thank you once again for allowing me the chance to speak to you and i wish you all a happy holiday. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, henry, for your comments. next speaker, if there is one. >> there are no more speakers in the queue. >> clerk: our next item is item 3, general public comment. the b.i.c. will take comments on matters that are in the public jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda. there looks like there is one person with their hand raised. john? >> you're unmuted, caller. >> clerk: all right, thank you. >> caller: hi there, my name is

moisa garcia, and i live on van ness and i am calling to express deep frustration with your housing inspection services. i feel that only until a matter is risen to management level or to your level am i actually ever heard. i filed a complaint in july about some very dangerous entry stairs to my unit. and i only ever heard back from an inspector a month later after i emailed the various department heads and the head of d.b.i. and even though i have been in contact with your department and inspector, i filed a complaint on october 28th for a variety of things that are happening inside my unit. i heard back on november 9th about scheduling something, and i didn't hear back until november 23rd about having an on-site inspection that you felt that was necessary. and now it's been three weeks

and i have not heard back at all from a housing inspector that i have been in contact with for months. this is ridiculous. we're living -- we're living in a pandemic and i'm constantly home as well as my housemates, and it seems that this department doesn't even care about what the conditions are of this unit. and i would really like to hear back from someone as soon as possible. thank you. >> president mccarthy: could you state your name. moises garcia, 1457 van ness, 94100. >> president mccarthy: thank you for that, mr. garcia. >> one more caller is in the queue. >> president mccarthy: sonya?

next item, sonya. >> clerk: i forgot to unmute myself. 4a is commissioner's questions and matters. inquiries to staff. at this time, commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices and procedures, which are of interest to the commission. >> we will go through the normal way. vice president sam moss? >> vice-president moss: no, i'm okay right now. we can keep going. >> president mccarthy: thank you, vice president. commissioner alexander-tut please. >> commissioner alexander-tut: yes, i have a question somewhat regarding what -- (indiscernible) so let me know if this is -- anyway, let me know if this is inappropriate,

but around a better forum for this, but i was curious also regarding the article -- is somebody who is -- whoever it is, i don't care if they're on this commission, but someone who is not a professional who works in d.b.i. all the time, is there a place where people can go and say do i need a permit instead of having to hire somebody to make that assessment for them? does that exist? >> so, you know, in anticipation and i do get the question. so what i would recommend is that in the next item 3, commissioner alexander-tut, that you give it some thought and we'll calendar something in january that we could address and talk to those questions for you. and if there's anything else that you want to add in there, we can make it a line item to kind of, you know, to address pretty much what was discussed in that act and so on. because i know that we have a lot of questions as

commissioners on it. so i'm quite okay, if that works for you, i'm totally okay. >> commissioner alexander-tut: that works for me and having this as an agenda item and hearing public comment on it and being able to ask questions because as commissioners we want to have, you know, to be able to answer questions as well and to understand, so i appreciate that as an agenda item. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> president mccarthy: next commissioner is commissioner kevin clinch. >> commissioner clinch: nothing, thank you. >> clerk: commissioner jacobo. >> commissioner jacobo: thank you for those comments on the article and i look forward to working on this in 2021 and finding solutions to be more efficient and more transparent, i think that this ties into what the commissioner alexander-tut also mentioned just about simplifying some things and making it very obvious and

accessible to people that otherwise might not have the ability to do this. i think that is a benefit, not just for the department, but i think that it would be a benefit for the average san franciscan to be able to get through that. so that's just kind of a general comment. and secondly, there's something that i wanted to bring up that i brought up at past commissions around our departure of our prior director and the information that came out in the news and everything else. i understand that there's an ongoing investigation, or has been, but it would be very helpful i think to be able to put out the information that we can put out about what we've learned, what has happened, and what we've done to mitigate some of the improprieties that may have occurred, right? i think that this is a good service for us and i think as transparency as commissioners and i think that for the general public to try to build this trust, and this is what we know

and this is what we can say, and here's what we have done and here's where we are going. and it would behoove us to do that. we're now in december and it's been quite a number of months and i would like to see something like that in the coming year. so that's just my one piece. >> president mccarthy: perfect, thank you, commissioner. and commissioner jason tam. >> commissioner tam: and i think that commissioner alexander-tut touched on everything that i would like to find out as well. and no comment at this point. >> president mccarthy: thank you, commissioner. madam secretary, b please. >> clerk: item b, future meetings and agendas. at this time, the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the building inspection commission. our next regular meeting will be on january 20th, 2020.

>> president mccarthy: so vice president moss, please. >> vice-president moss: you know, i want to thank you, president, and for everyone else's comments. you know, specifically with what i'd like to know is staff's thoughts on when it comes to a permit expediter. i think that it's very easy to say that we should have a system where no expediter is needed -- that is true. and -- but, you know, also the expediters have come out as president mccarthy said, you know, and just complicated legislation on top of legislation on top of legislation, both from the federal, state and the local. but i'm wondering if there's statistics on, you know, the number of times an individual has to engage an expediter or was told to engage an expediter by the building department staff and did that to move forward, as

opposed to just being able to apply for a permit and to receive it. because, to be frank, whether or not it's true, if the public feels they need to hire an expediter to accomplish anything with the department of building inspection, then it might as well be true, and we need to address that. so i'm really hoping that can specifically be an agenda item. and it can certainly be included with everything else that has been said today but i think that it does -- it does touch upon a lot of what the article is suggesting that you need to have the monetary privilege and the -- you know, the industry ability to hire these very -- i mean, the term "expediter" insinuates that other people are going to have to go slower so that you can win your race. you know, what i'd like to know is the staff's opinion on how we get to the point where everyone can simply apply and move forward? thank you. >> thank you, good comments. >> president mccarthy:

commissioner alexander-tut maybe you can frame that based on what you are hearing? >> commissioner alexander-tut: so i think it would be helpful to have -- maybe with a regular hear ago -- on the permit process. and where the department says, you know, it kind of addresses the -- the questions that have come up as well as the use of the expediters. and the -- i think that it's always to better hear first, right, to hear from the public. and to hear those concerns. and then to be able to have perhaps an across city department that follows that

about how can we do this better. if the expediter is not needed just for d.b.i., but maybe to negotiate the different departments, maybe we need a city liaison for the departments that will provide that service and walk you through those departments. and if you don't want to do it, you can hire someone to do it, and you can hire someone to do anything that you don't want to do pretty much, but it's a necessity to functionally navigate. and if things like that already exist, some of us don't know, so the public may not know, and it would be helpful to understand, you know, what is and then, you know, what -- why are they, you know, what are the holes. i would be really be curious to find out if the expediter, like, i understand they have to register with ethics, and i think that what i'm hearing from people is that there's a series of questions that we have that probably don't fit into one

meeting. so i would either say that it's a special meeting or, like, a series of meetings -- hearings over time where we are kind of trying to address, you know -- like some of these issues but not take on the full haul in one d.b.i. sitting. i think that most of us would find that confusing because we have so many questions about expediters and so many questions about the service process and so many questions where we are going. and, you know, where we are. and i think that it would get very confusing in one sitting. so my guess is to break it up into a series. and i do want to echo that there are questions about, you know, what has happened with the previous director. and questions about internal controls around accusations of corruption. i would love to find out that these things, you know, that we

-- that all of these -- you know, we have great internal controls. i think that is something that the public wants to know as well. but, again, like, these cannot -- i believe that this covers -- even if i could sum it up in one sentence, i don't think that it's a one hearing deal. what i am hearing from people is that folks want to know -- the public really wants to know, you know, what is -- what is the way that we -- we interact on permit issues with the most efficient way to get things done. and then i don't think that the public likes to hear the blame game from within the department, right? and i think that's fair. it's also fair for us to say -- this is a d.b.i. issue, however, you know -- i know this is an ongoing issue that many people have tried to deal with, but i think that there are overall questions in the permit process that, you know, deserve the time that it will take to actually

address them. so i can't -- i can't summarize in one sentence. because i think what i'm hearing is that there's a series of questions here. it will be our work for 2021, it sounds like. >> president mccarthy: commissioner alexander-tut, thank you. commissioner clinch. >> commissioner clinch: nothing to add. >> president mccarthy: commissioner jacobo. >> commissioner jacobo: i want to add support to the comments from commissioner alexander-tut. and call it a public information campaign, because if there is a misconception or an idea -- or a fact or something that could be made better, right, all of that rests on the fact that people may or may not have the correct information of what is being done, how it's being done, etc., right? and so i think that the first step is to kind of break through all of that and that in and of itself i think will be part of some of these ideas. but i think that it's also a public benefit to have that

transparency so folks are able to understand it. and from there it's the work of trying to make it more efficient. i mean, the transparency lends itself to the efficiency in collaboration hopefully with other departments. because it is not just d. d.b.i. here, to be clear, and there's work to do in planning and various city departments. bureaucracies are complicated and there's a lot of interweaves and at the end of the day it just impacts the average person from being able to get what they need from the city to benefit (indiscernible). so i think it's a series of meetings. i don't know how we break that out, but i'm here for it, and definitely want to commit myself to helping to do that for 2021. >> president mccarthy: thank you, thank you, commissioner jacobo. who did i miss? commissioner tam, please, sorry. >> commissioner tam: thank you, president mccarthy. i think that all of my fellow

commissioners have (indiscernible) but i actually think as well that there's some resources, and right now it's a lack of education and information for the public in some sense where, you know, there's a lot of people that don't understand the process. and maybe we should have workshops and additional resources to kind of help to guide the process. and that's why, you know, i think that some people have these expediters because they don't understand the process. if we could educate the public on how to do something or which department to go to, and maybe having an information (indiscernible) it would be something that i thought that we'd like to explore as well. so, thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, commissioners, and i appreciate everybody's comment there is. i like where the conversation is going and i do understand the complexity of trying to do this. so i do agree that maybe this should be done in a series of meetings to help to steer the

department in this report to help to create a more user-friendly department. and i think that could be done over a series of meetings. so if you would bear with me, what i would do is to send out a potential game plan on that to the commissioners before the next meeting and you can give me your input if you think that we're going the right direction. i once again want to commend my commissioners' comments and the get done type of policy that you really would like to see in place. and, you know, the other part is the media. sometimes i find it very frustrating that they just don't do the heavy lifting and the fact checking that needs to be done and it gets tough for me over these years, and many years in this department, to read in the newspaper, you know, this blame game. and i do understand from the public's point of view as commissioner tut's point of view that they're really not

interested in whose fault it is, they want to get to the system that is in place. so i do agree with that. so with that, thank you, commissioners and i will followthrough with you on the next meeting on how we strategize and agendize. madam secretary, next item, please. >> clerk: okay, thank you. commissioners, please we'll have public comment on this item, it was brought to my attention that we had a couple of callers in the queue that we have missed and they were for a previous item. and also for the record, i just wanted to announce the public comment call-in number is 1-(415)-655-0001. and the access code is 146 975 9992. and to raise your hand for public comment on a specific agenda item, please press star, 3, when prompted by the operator so that you can speak.

and also president mccarthy, interim director o'riordan is in attendance, so after we take care of public comment we can do our proclamation that we had for director sweeney. >> president mccarthy: perfect. as a point of order, madam secretary, the public comment that we're going to go back and listen to, is it on item 3 or 4? >> clerk: we don't know exactly but we're going to just take all of the public comment that we have at the time. >> president mccarthy: okay, thank you, madam secretary. >> clerk: all right, john, we can go ahead with that public comment. thank you. >> see if there are callers in the queue. caller, you are unmuted. >> caller: good morning. i have been observing since 2013. i need to really make an important point here. we need to separate words from

action. you know, i have listened to a lot of aggressive and sincere ideas about fixing things, yet without a detailed work plan, timeline, it's just are the rhetoric. so i would like to give you an example, if you looked at the b.i.c. meeting from february 21, 2001 there was a detailed discussion about the problem with unpermitted demolitions. and it referenced a definitive time from 1996. this stuff never gets fixed. that's why you folks have zero credibility. i also would suggest that you look at making transparency and enforcement. there's no reason that the n.o.b.s can't be on your website. requiring people to come to your building to see -- now it really

doesn't make sense in this day and age. and the last thing they would say is that many of the problems, you know, in the worln be solved with simple solutions. so why don't you guys have f.a.q.s, frequently asked questions and responses to those comments. what do i need to get, you know, and what circumstances do i need to get a permit? we don't have to have, you know, a huge committee -- i mean, common sense can fix these problems if there's the will. and i think that's the problem. the public does not see the will. thank you. >> one more caller in the queue. >> caller: good morning, commissioners. can you hear me okay? >> yes. >> caller: great, thank you. good morning, commissioners and thank you for your time and

president mccarthy thank you for yours and your comments, mr. i am kevin o'connor and i called last month about my property. i feel like i'm involved now and i want to call every month with comments. i read that article on saturday too and even though i am somewhat partial to some of the comments, agree with you very much, mr. mccarthy, that it's a little bit unfair. i want to start by saying that for the greatest part -- and not the greatest part -- but the greatest part of dedication of the staff starting with your own sonya harris, who is incredible, and multitasking and working after hours, for the most part, everyone is trying to do a really, really, really great job. when you talk about some of the issues like, you know, this new policy regarding electricity -- everything created in policy in my opinion is for the public betterment and for the citizens

of san francisco. and it is so complicated and complex. i'm not going to complain about the rules but i am going to talk to you a little bit about the inability to adjude caught all f their rules. i hate going down and having to get a single permit for every item on a major remodel. maybe one permit with addendums to that perinit and still charge the same fees and make it more streamlined. but i do want to also talk about expediters and the problem with that because i in the past have hired expediters because i was under the impression that would be a good thing, that it would be helpful. and the three expediters that i have talked to in the last six years have turned out to be criminals and they were of high standing. so how do we at the same time work efficiently with the process of d.b.i. by hiring people that you assume to be professionals, and these guys were at that time talking the best game, and i've got to go.

so i just want to speak to that, like, here we are and also, about your comments, miss tam, about liaisons, great idea too, but, okay, i have to go. thank you very much, commissioners. merry christmas. >> president mccarthy: was there a fire alarm there. >> thanks. our timer. that's the timer that we have. i thought that it was a fire alarm. >> no. sorry. >> is that new? i don't think that i have heard that before? >> clerk: it does that once it gets towards the end. towards the end of the time. >> president mccarthy: thank you for that. >> clerk: no, thank you. okay, thank you very much. all right, our next item. now we can go to our proclamation, president

mccarthy. >> president mccarthy: thank you, madam secretary, and we're taking this out of order here because our interim director had a meeting this morning and he wanted to be here. so you are here, patrick? >> yes. yes, i am. thank you. >> president mccarthy: i want to read something into the record here if i may. so on behalf of the commission, i wanted to thank and to congratulate deputy director of inspection services, ed sweeney, who is taking his well-earned retirement from the department at the end of this week i believe on december 18th. deputy director sweeney has been one of the department's leadership -- leadership pillars for more years than i can remember, and he has rendered outstanding building code, permit review and inspections and code enforcement and professionalism throughout his career with d.b.i. and with the city and county.

ed began his distinguished career nearly 22 years ago with d.b.i. on january 25th, 1999. when he -- if you could mute there, sonya -- when he joined the department at -- as a 6331 building inspector, he was promoted into a 63334 chief building inspector in november 2002. and then promoted again in august 2008 to 0953 deputy director, a position that he's held for the past 12 years. we wish him every possible success and well-earned retirement and deeply appreciate the skillsets and the expert judgments that he's provided to the customers, d.b.i. directors, the commission, and many other city review agency, staff, for more than two decades. you will be very much missed,

ed, by those of us who have benefited time and time again from your wise advice, counsel and very kind way of doing business. so with that i think that i'd like to hand it off to the interim director o'riordan for his comments, thank you. >> thank you, president mccarthy. we are here socially distancing and with masks on. and i have been very honored to present to edward this award. and as the director of inspection services and he's retiring after nearly 22 years of service to the department. i wanted to thank him for his many contributions. he's served as the lead inspector, senior building inspector, and chief building inspector and the director. he has a deep knowledge of this department for two decades and

it will be a shame to lose so much knowledge. and in his retirement we wish him well in his retirement. thank you, edward, for your service. we are envious that you're able to sleep in now and please keep in touch. i want to present you with this on behalf of the agency. thank you. [applause] >> president mccarthy: ed, can you say a few words there. you're usually never short of a few words. >> yeah, i would just like to thank everybody for almost 22 years here at d.b.i., from the directors and to the rank-and-file people, commissioners. i would like to thank everybody for the professionalism of this department and i look forward to visiting frequently. and i won't go away.

thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, ed. any other commissioners, or anybody else that would like to say a few words? >> i was stepping in to say that this is also a certificate from the building department, on behalf of the commissioners. thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, thank you, ed. i would like to open it up to anybody else to say a few words if there is. >> congratulations on retirement, ed. >> yeah, congratulations. get some rest. >> congratulations indeed. you will be missed and enjoy your time relaxing. >> indeed, congratulations, and thanks for welcoming the new commissioners to the team. >> congratulations.

>> president mccarthy: i think that is it, ed. thank you so much. and keep the phone on, we're going to still need some advice, okay? >> clerk: okay, thank you, guys. >> president mccarthy: we'll talk soon, okay. bye. >> clerk: great, thank you, everyone. congratulations, again, to ed. and we are on to our next item, item 5. update regarding d.b.i.'s initiatives to accelerate permit processing during the health crisis. >> hi, sonya, can i have -- can i share my screen? >> president mccarthy: good morning, christy. good morning. >> good morning. good morning, president mccarthy and commissioners. the assistant director.

i'm going to go through a quick presentation on -- with an update on our permit services. so as a reminder, we have for our current permit services we have our in-person services which are the over-the-counter permits. we issued no plans over-the-counter permits from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. we had averaged about 45 a day but that seems to have tapered off in the last couple weeks, i think going into the holidays things are slowing down a little bit. for our over-the-counter with plans we offer appointments for customers to drop off their plans between 9:30 and 3:30 p.m.. and i will talk a little bit about that in a later slide. and for our new in house permits and folks email us and we start the intake process. we also have the auto generated

permits that people just go online to get, the trades permits, plumbing and electrical and mechanical, boiler permits, and then the re-roofing permits that we brought online in october. and we expedite any emergency permits and we are using electronic plan review for the use with the partnership with the planning department and for the in-house permits that were submitted electronically whether we were using only d.r., and then for 100% of affordable housing and development agreement projects. and starting next month we'll be using electronic planned review for the projects that are eligible for prop h., which you may recall that is -- was recently passed by voters and speeds up the approval process for small businesses trying to get permits to make

improvements. so i want to talk about our numbers. as you recall when shelter-in-place went into effect, we were issuing and we were doing only electronic plan review and issuing about 50 permits a day that was down from the 110 permits a day that we used to issue pre-covid. and we have slowly been able to ramp that back up once we launched the curbside and we got that up to 70. and now we are issuing close to 100 a day, so we're still doing, you know, just under what we were doing pre-covid, even under these, you know, impacted circumstances. and cumulatively, since shelter-in-place, we have issued more than 34,000 permits and that includes the trace permits that people get online, as well as over-the-counter, in-house review and all of the electronic planned review permits. so 2,300 of those were issued

through electronic plan review. and then that number will continue to go up. and then we've conducted approximately 80,000 field inspections. so, you know, even with the shelter in place, and the limitations on our ability to have people come into the department, you know, we -- people have worked really hard here, the staff has, you know, just consistently shown up. and conducted the field inspections that we need to conduct and issued the permits and have really, really worked hard. so, but, you know, we're still working on addressing the permitting challenges that have come about because of the -- because of the pandemic. we have -- we're implementing technology improvements and making process improvements with the digital processing system. and that -- the permit center recently engaged consultants to help us to work through some of

those e.p.r. improvements that we need to make, especially the work flow improvements. and there's really a need -- the thing that is kind of missing is the electronic plan review is the project management function. it's not automatically built into the tool and so the consultant is going to help us to work through that and to help us to implement project management function. as well as we're still working on the integration with our permit tracking system. and we -- our m.i.s. team, our technology folks, are working -- currently working on automating the no plan kitchen and bathroom remodel permits. so that will add to the suite of auto generated permits that we offer online and so they've been working hard on that and making a lot of progress on that. we -- on the staff level, we arl permit services administrator,

sam, he started on monday, and i think that the director is going to do an introduction of him when i finish this presentation. so we're really excited for him to be on board and bring his expertise. we've also brought in just this week two more permit technicians to help in the central permit bureau issuing permits and then we have six new permit tech one positions starting later this month and they will help us with the customer service as well as to talk about more in the further slide. and those folks are still putting in a lot of overtime to make sure that we're issuing as many as possible and partners with other agencies, the fire department is managing the intake and the issuance for the fire only permits and they have been -- they've really ramped up and they've been issuing another permit a day and the planning

permit has began to use. p.r., and -- e.p.r., and we have the permit center now working with us on managing our customer service functions. and there were some customers waiting a long time to be able to come in and to we added 50% more appointments so we offered 24 and we use a wait list to bring customers in. we have moved up about 500 people into appointments that, you know, so that they could come in sooner, so the folks that maybe were two or three months out, we were able to call them and to say can you come in next week.

so every customer that we offered a new appointment to was able to come within the next three weeks and now we're proactively reaching out to customers and inviting them to come in earlier. so to make sure that if anyone is not aware that the wait list exists we are reaching out and saying that we see you have an appointment in january and do you want to come in this month. so that's something that we have been working on with the permit center and they've been doing a really great job on. for customer service, and there's customer outreach and how we are answering questions, and we had our customer service response rate fell when we were -- we were diverting staff to issuing permits because we had -- as you recall, we need more administrative staff to issue permits. so we're addressing that and that's something that we have been actively addressing in the last few weeks and we have

partnered with the permit center, and they have folks there who have a lot of customer service experience, so they're helping to manage the customer service team and they create a new system for treeaging and, you know, the requests that are coming in and assigning replies to the team. and they're managing the calendar and ensuring that there's accountability and we have started rotating some of our permit services staff back into the customer service function, which helps them -- which helps us to be able to offer folks the ability to tele-commute which is important right now when we have a surge of covid cases. and also to just help us to make sure that we're staying current on the customer service requests. and and now that they have brought in consultants to help with e.p.r., and we have ramped up that -- that effort.

and we are on friday doing -- director reardon and the chief building inspector joe duffy and others are going to be doing a customer -- hosting a customer update to -- yeah, to educate the big construction sites on how to make sure that they're complying with the health and safety restrictions and keeping people safe on construction sites. and then we've been actively reviewing our in-house review submittal permits process to make improvements, and it was mentioned earlier about creating a track for addenda and revisions to make sure that those are being processed, you know, efficiently and expeditiously. so we're really looking at improvements that we can make there to make sure that -- you know, that those permits are being efficiently processed. and that concludes my

presentation. thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you. >> commissioners and president mccarthy if i might to chime in here. it's my great pleasure to introduce sam who started on monday as our chief administrative officer for permit services. sam brings more than 30 years of experience as a building official and an engineer and a plan reviewer. in addition to his professional and leadership experience, i am particularly excited for him to bring his technology leadership to the department to help to modernize and to streamline our permit services. sam has been a member of the technology and innovation committee for tabo for the past four years and has published his recommendations from how to adopt technologies to improve building department productivity.

this is exactly what we need and we're working -- as we work through, and we launch our electronic review system. sam will lead the permit services team and manage approximately 80 staff members in the division. i want to also to take this opportunity to thank dan for all of his work. he will take on a new role in managing the review intake for our in-person services. sam, would you like to say a few words? >> yes, definitely, thank you, director o'riordan for the introduction. my name is sam, and good morning, commissioner mccarthy and the commissioners. it is an honor and a privilege to join the department of building inspection team. i'm humbled by being selected to work in permit services. (indiscernible) and working

for world renowned cities and in the county of san francisco as part of my career. throughout my work at the building department, my focus has been around public service and permitting processes to work effectively and with the best customer service possible and the highest degree of professionalism. i understand your frustration and the frustration of the public, we are working diligently and expeditiously to make it more (indiscernible) for all members of the public. i have always advocated (indiscernible) for the department and have successfully implemented many improvements. with covid-19 we are facing unprecedented challenges, and the need for technology in serving the public is more

critical than ever before. i look forward to serving the city and county of san francisco. and i will be here if you have any questions. >> president mccarthy: thank you, thank you, mr. shory, and thank you for joining the san francisco family team. i look forward to working with you over the next years. is there any of our commissioners who would like to make a comment? may i start off with vice president moss? >> vice-president moss: no comment, thank you. >> president mccarthy: commissioner alexander-tut? >> commissioner alexander-tut: thank you, i look forward to your ideas. thank you. >> president mccarthy: commissioner clinch, please. >> commissioner clinch: mr. shory, i'm very excited by the director o'riordan's introductions and it's very exciting with your credentials and your experience.

i think that it will be really helpful to us. and, welcome, and we look forward to working with you. >> clerk: commissioner jacobo. >> commissioner jacobo: welcome, and we obviously look forward to working with you and the talent and the experience that you bring to the table. so we're excited for that. welcome. >> president mccarthy: thank you. commissioner tam, please. >> commissioner tam: welcome to the team, sam. look forward to working with you. >> president mccarthy: okay, once again, welcome, and we look forward to working with you. thank you very much for your comments. next item, madam secretary. do we -- do we have public comment? >> we have one caller in the queue. sonya, shall i unmute it?

>> president mccarthy: unmute them, yeah. >> caller -- >> caller: good morning. >> you're unmuted. >> caller: thank you. this is jerry grantler. i would encourage sam and the new planning commission members to get a copy of the 2007 business process re-engineering study that was very professionally done. and what they'll find is that many of the issues that i think that there were 180 recommendations there to be actively addressed. so i think that is a good jumping off point in terms of looking at business process. you know, there's no point in starting with a blank piece of paper. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. any more callers? >> no, there are not. >> clerk: okay, thank you. and next item is item 6. update on the single room

occupancy s.r.o. program, regarding covid-19 actions. >> hi, good morning. thanks again for prioritizing s.r.o. issues. i have an update. and inspections in s.r.o.s under the pandemic is fraught with danger for our staff. it is also dangerous just to try to live in that kind of a small room with a common shower and bathroom. the staff member that was recognized here a couple months ago, christina moy, signed on for three more months at the covid center, wearing her hazmat suit. and forcing the clean-up order to make sure that the facilities

in the s.r.o.s are clean and safe for people to use. and lots of complaints, you know, it's dicey, trying to deal with all of these issues, but there are some serious issues that we are dealing with day in and day out, and have done so this entire time since mid-march. so -- and we are working closely with the s.r.o. collaboratives, they're providing really important support for the 20,000 residents of s.r.o.s. yesterday the board of supervisors passed a new program for capping rent contributions at 30% of people's income who live in permanent supportive housing. which was an idea that sort of originated from the programs and

meetings that we participate in with s.r.o. tenants. and then there's the homeless in hotels issue that is still going on at the board of supervisors and around the city. and also the mission, we are trying to help a hotel that's got a prior issue. and street lighting for safety, for seniors who live in the tenderloin. so they can walk to their building when it's dark out, because it gets dark really early. and we concluded the annual unit usage reporting that was done in

november where every s.r.o. has to tell us how they're using their property -- i think that we're going to try to move to having a more online system for that, which will move the need to ask for assistance trying to set that up. to make that easier on all sides, so it wouldn't take us hundreds of hours to process all of the information. so it's going to conclude my update. i'm available for questions for this or any other housing issue that you may want to bring up. >> president mccarthy: commissioners, anybody that wants to weigh in? >> this is kevin clinch. i just want to say that i'm really impressed that we haven't had major breakouts, at least reporting through the media with the s.r.o.s. i think that's probably a combination of the efforts being made by the staff, and the

residents and, certainly, staff from the department enforcing things. i just think that deserves recognition and for the record i think that it is pretty remarkable given what we're seeing in the rest of the country. so hats off to you. >> thank you very much, commissioner. it really is -- well, the rest of our staff is putting in the hard work. i appreciate that. >> president mccarthy: okay. if there's no more commissioners, is there somebody else, commissioners? okay. >> commissioner alexander-tut: i just wanted to say thank you, no, go ahead. >> gratitude to the staff. and giving out there every day and making a difference and, you know, it really does make significant difference, so kudos to you all for going through this process. >> thank you very much, commissioners. >> president mccarthy: okay.

with that, if there's public comment, is that correct, madam secretary? >> there's one caller in the queue. caller, you are unmuted. >> caller: oh, thank you. i would like to know why we -- you know, we have the transparency like with san francisco.building i.com. you used to see on there who did all of the permitting, you know, from the intake to the end, and who did all of of the inspections. now when you go on there, it -- it routes you to -- it won't pull it all up. it routes you to the d.b.i. website. and then when you try to log on to that, then it says "records unavailable." you know, in red letters. technical, you know, difficulty. this has been reported to d.b.i.

so rather than transparency that, you know, we're supposed to be seeing, you know, we're covering up stuff. i would like to, you know, to have an explanation for, you know, why that is happening. i mean, it seems to be more obfiscation rather than transparency. can i get any feedback on that from anybody? >> clerk: sorry, sir, we're not allowed to respond to the public comment. but the staff can look into your inquiry at a later date. >> caller: okay, thank you. >> clerk: thank you. any additional public comments? >> no, there's not -- oh, sorry, there's one more caller. >> clerk: okay.

>> wait, sorry. there it is. >> caller: okay, commissioners, henry. i just wanted with what the last speaker said -- no, the p.t.s. does work pretty good. it happens so every often, but on the whole you can track permits, you can track inspections and you can track complaints. you can get some of the stuff -- you can't get some stuff from housing but, honestly, i think that our system is pretty good. i wanted to say thank you to christina moy who i have done a number of inspections with, she's been great. and the other person who is really cool at housing is matt ruden. he gets here when i go in and have to be signed off by housing, he gets right on it. great job, thank you, guys, i appreciate it. and i think that everybody in the s.r.o. appreciates it also.

so that's my two cents. thank you. >> thank you, caller. >> president mccarthy: madam secretary, anymore? >> clerk: i thank you. we are checking on that right now. just one moment, we are checking. there may be one more person. >> caller: hi there, good morning again commissioners. can you hear me? >> clerk: hi. hello, caller, we can hear you. have you called previously? >> caller: yeah, yeah, but i wanted to comment, like i heard today too is that both what that gentleman asked as far as the r.i.p. for all people to do the -- and those other comments they are easily found on your website. and also in regard to the ga zoneo, that -- gazebo, that article is ridiculous, because

it's easy to find out and i can look up by name and the hierarchy is something that you can just google. so if your defense i think that the information is out there and you are trying to be transparent. people can't just find it. thank you very much, merry christmas. >> clerk: thank you. is that all of the callers? >> no more callers in the queue. >> clerk: okay, thank you. okay, our next item is item 7. discussion and possible action regarding the department of building inspections racial equity plan. >> president mccarthy: thank you, madam secretary. if i may, is deputy director tarlis -- >> yeah. >> president mccarthy: perfect, hand it off there. >> clerk: um-hmm. >> good morning, commissioners, paris madison, with the department of building inspection and i'll provide the

department's racial equity action plan. sonya, i'm going to just share my screen, please. >> clerk: okay. and, john, could you please give the screen sharing duties. thank you. presenter, i'm sorry. >> okay. okay, so let's start with just a brief overview. i think that i have made a presentation a few times before to the commission, but i'll give a brief overview of the racial equity action plan. so, actually, ordinance 188-19, requires all city departments to submit a racial equity plan in response to the racial

disparity. and the office of racial equity which is a human rights department, developed the framework and strategy for the plan. the plan is in two phases. the first phase is a plan focuses on internal programs and policies. primarily focusing on workforce issues such as recruitment and hiring, retention and promotion, and discipline and separation and diverse and leadership and management and culture of inclusion. and also there's a section for boards and commissions. the second phase is focused primarily on our external programs and services and policies but that won't begin until some time next year. and actually it's goodbye toy a senior plan and -- to be part of the racial efforts and the plan is updated annually. so a little bit about the process. we received instructions i think that maybe in july of this year 2020, from the office of racial equity. the department -- our department

has two racial equity leaders and i'm a racial equity leader as well as our h.r. manager, so we have been participating in meetings held by the office of racial equity. our h.r. manager has been participating in city-wide workforce work because there's some issues that focus -- require more of a city-wide solution to participate in those. we have shared racial equity information with the b.i.c. staff in emails and meetings in the past and the resolution, i think back in august. and we administered a racial equity survey where about 48% of the staff participated. and we have held additional meetings with employees, particularly (indiscernible) and we have analyzed the demographic and the survey data. so here's a demographic data that we have. the data is taken from the department of human resources. they provide all departments with demographic data.

this is -- the source of this is november 10, 2020, and so as you can see with d.b.i., from our employees, our racial ethnic breakdown is primarily white and asians are the largest portion of employees and they make up 77% of the department workforce. and the remaining racial groups make up about less than 10%. other additional demographic data we decided to look at the information based on classifications. there are actually six classifications that make up the bulk of the d.b.i.'s workforce and that's 85% of all d.b.i. employees work in these classification ooze -- building inspector, electrical inspector, plumbing inspector and permit technician and engineers. what what you see here is race and ethnicity by classification. so you can see from this chart

that our inspector class, excluding housing inspector, but all of the other inspector applications are primarily white. and then in our engineering classifications, those are primarily asian. and then for housing inspector, there's one classification series that tends to be on the most diverse. there's a majority of not one race or ethnicity. and our permit application is more of a reputable representation. so in addition to looking at demographic data, the department also sent out a survey to all employees. and it was an equity survey done in october. and here is a summary of some of the results. most respondents understand the purpose of the racial initiative and the basic concept of racial equity. most of the respondents have positive relationships with those of different races. and so one of the focuses is that the office of racial

equity, one of the departments to look at is both interpersonal racism as well as institutional racism. and on the interpersonal side and from surveys and meetings with others, most felt that d.b.i. was welcoming .and about 61% stated that d.b.. could do to have workforce inclustivity. and the report from concerns from racial equity in the workforce. and i'll address that a little bit later. in addition, we had meetings with individuals and also we had group meetings. and there were -- those written responses as well as follow-up meetings to have more racial equity training and for open communication and consistent job training and development, particularly in the permit technician series.

and so based on this information, both the demographic information as well as the meetings and the information gained from meetings and from the third, the department will have these major goals over the next three years. for recruitment and hiring to have people of color in those classifications that don't have a representation. for retention and promotion, we want to ensure consistent training programs across all divisions and separation, we want have i a transparent disciplinary process. and equitable leadership. we want d.b.i. leadership to value and promote racial equity. and for mobility and professional development, we want to improve the professional development for entry level and frontline staff. and under organizational culture of inclusion we want to create a culture of inclusion with communication, training and also policies. and the next steps for the plan

is that we want to incorporate any additional information into the draft plan, and we can provide information and we will be working on that. there's a part of the plan that also includes -- and you received the entire plan in your packet and this is just a summary of it. there's a template with individual actions that they want each department to who, on. so we're updating that we didn't receive the updated template on december 9th so we'll have to go in and make updates to that. those are the individual actions that we'll undertake in the next several years. we have to submit by december 31st. and we want to continue to engage and to work with d.b.i. staff and also as well as the commission too. and then we want to continue to work with the office of racial equity. and then although there's a huge template of individual actions that need to take place, there are some priorities that we want

to focus on in year one, meaning in 2021. and these are the priorities that kind of bubbled up to the top because of the results that we received from the survey and also from the demographic data that we have. and so want to first to continue to improve the organizational culture of inclusion through expanding the racial equity team and developing the racial equity training modules. and as i mentioned earlier, there were some concerns from staff in the anonymous survey, a big concern that race would be a factor in determining who or who would not be employed. so, obviously, we need to make sure that we reach out to everyone and have everyone to understand what racial equity is. because that is not what racial equity is. racial equity is trying to make sure that you're inclusive but it doesn't mean that you're going to be targeting or you're going to be hiring someone who isn't qualified for the job. we also want to expand with

outreach in our applicant pool. once again that is doing more outreach specifically to different organizations to make sure that we have a more diverse applicant pool. and more diverse applicant pool with qualified applicants that can assist us in diversifying the department. and then we also want to develop standard on boarding and processes to ensure that staff have equal access to tools to successfully perform their jobs. those are the three of the major things that we'll be doing. and we'll do smaller actions that are included in the template but these are the three things to focus on in the first year. and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> president mccarthy: thank you, deputy director madison, for that presentation and helping to walk us through it. so we have two choices.

we could go to public comment or go -- is there public comment and then swing back to my commissioners if that works. >> there is no public comment. >> president mccarthy: okay. so with that then if i could -- >> we lost you there. >> president mccarthy: sorry, can you hear me now? vice president moss? >> vice-president moss: sorry, everyone, there we go. i want to again thank everyone for, you know, this initial putting this report together. there's certainly plenty of issues with racial disparity or a lack of. i know that we have racial equity sub-committee as well and i certainly would like to hear from them. but at this time those are my comments. thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you. commissioner alexander-tut

please. >> commissioner alexander-tut: first, i want to just thank you to the deputy director and the h.r. director and the madam secretary with all of your hard work on this. i know that it's been a lot on top of so many other duties that you have, with such an important issue. and i really appreciate how -- how tailored your goals in year one really are to the needs of d.b.i. and they don't feel generic. they really do feel responsive to issues that have been identified by staff. and i really appreciate that, particularly the -- the issues raised by the permit technicians. and i think that it's exciting to be very specific issues raised by classifications being addressed, because so often we

only go for the broad strokes and miss the opportunity to really improve people's experience by focusing on the nuances in -- within -- the classifications. so i want to acknowledge that and to thank you for your work and i'm excited to see what comes. >> thank you. >> president mccarthy: commissioner clinch, please. >> commissioner clinch: thank you, it commissioner alexander-tut you stole some of my thunder. we have similar thinking. and the slide on the screen right now, i want to similarly sort of commend you, deputy director, for these bullets which are a lot of times that we -- we all worked on these kind of initiatives, and sometimes the ambitions can be, you know, hard to work towards.

but these are very tangible and i think that really well written. so i want to say that they'll be easy to achieve but they'll certainly -- you have laid it out well so they're more achievable. and the second bullet is one that i'm particularly curious about and i'm interested in because i understand that the city as a whole has -- is working on outreach and i would assume that we're -- our department is working with that initiative. but that's where a lot of gains can be made and i think that is pretty exciting. so looking forward to seeing something coming out of that. that's it for me, thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, commissioner clinch. commissioner jacobo, please. >> commissioner jacobo: yeah, deputy director, thank you for the work on this. it was -- it was good to read i think even the fact that we had so many survey respondents having the ability to not just respond to the survey, with just

generic answers, but to give comments on what they thought to be the problem. and if this is good or bad or yes or no will not give you the full picture and i think that your comments were very helpful in guiding some of the work that will happen from this point forward. so i really do thank you for that. i know that, you know, it always seems like, you know, a lot of this race and equity work is still a huge hurdle to overcome, but i know that we are making progress i think every day with these increments. and changing the course of, you know, the demographics within individual departments which will be a more diverse leadership and a more diverse department of building inspection which i think we all want to achieve. so thank you for your work and look forward to continuing to support in any way that we can.

>> president mccarthy: thank you, commissioner jacobo. commissioner tam, please. >> commissioner tam: thank you, deputy chief, and for everyone that worked on this. i definitely agree with my commissioner here and i know that this is definitely a right direction here and positive for the department as a whole. and i definitely would love to see some of these ideas implemented as well, so, good stuff. thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, commissioner tam. and i also want to just echo the director and the fellow commissioner's comments and compliments to you and also to commissioner jacobo and commissioner alexander-tut who worked on this on behalf of the commission. and, you know, it's just a plethora of information here that could really help to understand the make-up of our department. i think that what is fascinating is the classification and things like that.

so the inclusiveness is the main goal here and, you know, i'm glad to hear you say that, you know, we have to get qualified people as well. so it's a tough challenge. and to try to balance. but, thank you again, deputy director. i know that you have a lot going on right now so to have this on this, and such a detailed document is appreciated on behalf of the commission. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. i just wanted to also thank all of the commissioners for their assistance and to say that i appreciate that our sub-committee with president mccarthy and the president alexander-tut and commissioner jacobo for their input for section 7 with the building inspection commission. and we coordinated together and, you know, i also received some input from other policy body administrators or the commission

secretaries that we have met and tried to come up together with ideas and i appreciate their input and assistance as well. and so we start, as deputy director madison mentioned, we have a lot of work to do. and on the 31st the commission has to come up with the overall goal and i'll be reaching back to you guys for that to come up with our overall goal. great, thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, madam secretary, and thank you for all of your work as well. >> clerk: okay, thank you. and there's no public comment on this item. so our next item is item 8, director's report. 8a, update on d.b.i.'s finances. >> sorry.

>> clerk: take your time. i know that we're switching on to the next thing. take your time.

okay. okay. okay. good morning, commissioners, taris madison, from the department of the building inspection. the 2020 monthly financial report that includes the revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year 2021, july-november, 2020. similar to prior months, we continue to see a decline in revenues. so on the first page you can see the budget of $47 million and that is projected to come in at $49 million so we're projected to come in higher than budgeted but, once again, that is because we're extremely competitive with our budget in june.

and so we are -- and this number is coming down. and last month it was expected to come in two million more. so this number is going down too. and to get a true picture what is going on we'd have to go to the second page. and so if we look at the second page we will see from revenues that last year this time we were at $33.2 million and now we're at 16.2 million. so we're still at about that 50% reduction. and that reduction is primarily due to the reductions in plan revenue and building permit revenue and the electrical permit revenue. and then on the expenditure side, we are at $27 million, and that's up from $25 million that was last year. that's primarily because we have more buildings certifications from other department work orders. we normally don't do expenditure

projections until we get about six months of data, so probably in the december report that you will receive in january will have projections on expenditures. but we have been trying to keep up with our revenues, keep up with the revenues, and the projections so that we can track them to make sure that you know what is going on. and then we have the building permit data. this is issued permit building information. and it's to show valuation and the number of permits that are still down. and i'm happy to answer any questions. >> president mccarthy: commissioners, is there anybody with a question here? anyone to weigh? in? >> nope. >> president mccarthy: yeah, taris, just looking -- the 50%, obviously, that's troubling. so i guess that we'll just keep an eye on that and keep talking about it every month.

but it's going to be tough times ahead for a while. so i want to just keep stressing that, that this number is concerning -- very concerning. so, okay, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> president mccarthy: commissioner alexander-tut. >> commissioner alexander-tut: thank you. this might be too early to ask or to know, but i'm curious if the -- you have any data on the permit operations. is there -- in terms -- i know that we have heard -- more with people, but is there a financial analysis on that? i'm wondering as we look at, you know, moving forward from a fiscal perspective how those saturday permit days -- i don't know what they're calling them -- are, you know, is it helpful?

>> president mccarthy: interim director, i think that you could talk to that, right? >> yeah, i'm happy to speak to that and thanks for the question commissioner tut. so one saturday permit day, simply because we realized that people were working here on saturday anyway. and if we were going to be open to customers on saturday, then people would have to work sunday as well to process some of the work that took place over the six days. so we realized that it's probably best if staff don't have to work seven days -- seven consecutive days and they need that sunday to rest up and be ready for another week. so that's why that is the

situation. thank you. >> president mccarthy: if i may also, director. i think that the other part of this is that i know that saturday for me was a big part was to help with the backlog and the intake and, you know, just kind of -- i know that at that time you were dealing with the intake problems and the long lines and so on. you're not experiencing that now? >> so thanks for mentioning that. so we were experiencing, you know, these long wait times for people to get appointments. so that was why we were thinking about all of these things that we could do and that was one of the things that we did, having a saturday permit day. but since then we have established as christine said the wait list and anyone who wants to get in for an appointment now is able to get in in the next few weeks. so we don't have that same pressure in regards to being

able to accommodate appointments. they're literally getting in if they wish to in the next several weeks. you know, at that time it was -- it was -- it was months. so that's why we did that. >> president mccarthy: thank you. is there any other commissioner that would like to weigh in? if not, next item. >> clerk: thanks, next item is item 8b, update on proposed or recently enacted state or local legislation. >> good morning, commissioners, john marie. i have these items for you. and the building ordinance and on november 25th, so it will go into effect on june 1, 2020. and then to the a.b. for the

implementation of it. but we will be -- we're on track to (indiscernible). so the next -- supervisor peskin's ordinance, it says renewing his shelter in place. that is still in committee. we haven't heard anything (indiscernible). supervisor safai's legislation to require demolition debris to obtain permits from the department of the environment. it was continued in land use. my understanding is that it will be heard again in late january or early february. i think that supervisor peskin wanted to clarify some jurisdictional issues with d.p.w. and the san francisco department of the environment, and there's not a lot of -- not a lot of sort of operational

impact on d.b.i., but it sort of is intentional to us. and the hearing to review the consultant access and involvement and permitting process was held on november 19th and filed. and finally we have the proposed ordinance to require landlords to report, maintain an inventory -- sorry, the rent board to maintain an inventory of all residential rental units and that was passed by the board on december 1st and is awaiting the investigate and is, as i said, mainly a rent board issue and should not impact the d.b.i. operations. with that i'm happy to answer any questions. >> president mccarthy: thank you, mr. murray. do any of my fellow commissioners -- >> nope. >> nothing. >> president mccarthy: thank you. >> no, thank you. >> clerk: okay, next item is 8c,

update on major projects. >> good morning again, commissioners. this is mat rick o'riordan here. this is an update based on major projects. and it lists the differences between 80's 2020 and september of 2020. there was .74% increase which equates to $159.2 million in construction costs from october over september. and we had a 1% increase from 63 additional units that were added in october. i'm available for any questions. thank you. >> president mccarthy: thank you, director. i'll open up the floor to my fellow commissioners. >> no thanks. >> i'm okay. >> president mccarthy: seeing none, next item. >> clerk: next item is 8d,

update on code enforcement. mr. duffy doing that item? >> good morning, commissioners. joe duffy. just on our code enforcement and d.b.i. monthly update, we've gos performed, 3,785, and 383 complaints received and complaint response within 24-72 hours was 370. and our inspection services, a hundred in whichions performed and 240 complaints received and 174 complaint responses within 24-72 hours was 136. and we complaints were issued were 43, and the code enforcement division, the number of cases sent to the director

hearing was 49. and we issued 10 order of abatements and we've had 12 of those cases in code enforcement abated with permits completed and the cases closed. and our -- as you heard earlier, all of our inspection staff are participating in the covid joit outreach program with the city administrator's department and a few other d.s.w. people working with us as well. basically our inspectors are having sites to comply with the covid protocols and there's a spike in the cases. we're helping with that and collecting data from the building deficiencies and we are collecting that and forwarding it to the health department and possibly the city attorney. so that's a very worthwhile program. that's all from me. and i just wanted to personally

wish mr. sweeney all the best in his retirement. i worked with him since 1999 and as patrick mentioned he had such knowledge and he'll be missed around the department. and, again, just wish him all the best. thank you. >> clerk: great. >> president mccarthy: thank you, mr. duffy. >> clerk: okay, and is there any public comment on the director's reports items, 8a through d? >> there is none. >> clerk: okay, thank you. our next item is item 9, revie and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of september 16, 2020. >> move to approve. >> second. >> clerk: okay, motion and a second. is there any public comment on the minutes? none? are all commissioners in favor?

>> aye. >> clerk: any opposed? the minutes are approved. and our next item is item 10, adjournment. is there a motion to adjourn? >> so moved. >> clerk: okay, a second? >> second. >> clerk: all commissioners in favor? >> aye. >> clerk: then we are now adjourned. >> hi, you're watching coping

with covid-19. today my guest, director of the san francisco international airport and he's here today to talk to us about how sfo has been weathering the pandemic, the safety measures put in place touch on the future of airline travel. welcome to the show. >> thank you chris, great to be here. >> i know airlines and airports have been particularly hard hit during the crisis. how has sfo managed and what have you put in place to protect passengers and employees? >> it's hard to believe we have been at this now for 9, 10 months. it is incredible to think about the kind of devastate to our industry. but we have managed through it i think really well and early on, it was clear that we needed to be a primary source for information for people arriving into san francisco. and so we really took that on

and put together a really robust program of media as well as announcements in our facilities and we're focusing on informing the public what to expect when they fly through sfo. and our priority is always the safety and security of our passengers and our employees and this certainly challenged us in a way we never could have imagined. but for starters, it was about physical distancing and we were fortunate to have very spacious facilities. we invested in our terminals over the past 25 years and allowed for an environment to create space and allow for the physical distancing and face mask wearing. really those three priorities when you talk about also having hand sanitizers, but we were the first airport to enforce face mask wearing and it started with employees and expanded it to the

traveling public. and we developed and implemented our own hand sanitizing stations and really focused on a helpful safe experience in our terminals and one that builds confidence in the public. there's a lot of interest in what we have done. we have been involved as a national and global level, really it was about that protecting of our passengers and our employees and being flexible and able to respond as conditions changed. >> i would imagine that includes signage as well. >> yes, signage and announcements. so we have put together our own sfo program of signage about mask compliance and physical distancing and the way things to do about washing hands and using

hand sanitizer and all those things were important to our messaging and our public address system, we have been messaging since the beginning about the importance of safety of all of these measures. >> that's great. is there an effort among airports to pull information and come up with guidelines for air travel and how is sfo involved? >> yes, and i feel the pandemic has brought us all together more as an industry. we're involved in a couple of layers of the industry, at a global scale with eight other global airports and sharing best practices with them and we're involved in many of the work groups around covid preparedness and response with other large u.s. airports. this really is an industry changing moment and sfo wants to be in the role of defining what

the future looks like and passengers want a consistent experience and they have a right to expect the consistent experience because we have to all be using similar protocols so there's preparedness and expectation of what is going to be the requirement at both ends over travel. so we have been working on something called an air information hub that could be the source of information for travellers to go to to find out what is happening, updated by the airports and the airline, so there's the understanding of what's required as they travel. >> this is typically the busiest time of the year for traveling. how was thanksgiving and what do you expect for the rest of the holiday season? >> thanks giving was unlike any other we have seen. and you know, with the health orders and travel advisories and

things going into effect, we again saw a primary role of being the point of information. i believe we had more traffic than we have had throughout the crisis, our busiest day we had 20,000 outbound passengers which would have been 80,000, but more than we've had since the crisis began. so we see this continuing trend of low traffic volumes through the holiday period and it will continue to depress travel as more orders happen. we see more of the same happening. and likely there will be further cancellations. >> right, in the future what changes will we see for air travel? can you talk about international travel and recent speculation about vaccine visas? >> you know, it is all evolving

and interesting about what the future of air travel looks like. we want to be on the front-end of defining what that is. as i talked about early on, it's about restoring passenger confidence and that should be the priority of our entire industry to get people comfortable with flying again. and so what does that new normal look like and the first thing is, expectation when you come to an airport you have a safe experience. and we did a survey of our passengers and sfo is rated a 4.3 out of five based on the preparations we have in place for physical distancing and messaging and the mask wearing compliance and all of those things, so that is just the first priority is the safety of the facility. and then, you know, testing is i think part of our future.

and our testing has been very well received and it is compelling the success and again building confidence by having tested flights for people before entering the destinations, that they have to get a test to avoid quarantine. on-site testing has been very effective, particularly in the hawaii flights we worked with united on. we see that because the planes are 70% full instead of 40% full because of the testing element. and i think that's a framework that is going to be important for the foreseeable future, test at airports but ultimately, covid-free flights through testing protocols that are applied at both ends of travel and when you talk about vaccinations and credentials, i think that's the next revolution of this. you will be required to show

your health credentials and verify that you have been vaccinated and if you haven't been vaccinated, as we go through this transition, that testing is available and there's confirmation that people are covid-free. i think that's all part of the future of what travel looks like, at least in the next several years i imagine. but also it's about preparedness for the long-term, too, and this pandemic is likely not the only pandemic we'll see. i think there's this preparedness and technology preparedness to help us in the future. >> finally, could you explain the air concept to us? >> we have been working on this with a group of global airports, it's testing protocols at both ends of a journey so there's a certainty that there's not a

spread of the virus by arriving passengers. so if we could develop policies and protocols that provide for this and airline partners that we work with that help enforce this and obviously governmental support for these things, then i think it will help mitigate the spread and have that assurance that flying is not contributing to local spread of the virus, so it requires the testing at both ends. there was a trial with london and new york and we are working on trials as well. with our testing on site, there's a lot of interest. we have been getting a lot of calls from, well, airports that are trying to catch up with testing at their facilities but a lot of airlines interested in leveraging our testing for different destinations. we are doing testing -- some

level of testing and worked with united on these branded covid-free flights. >> that's great. thank you so much. i really appreciate the time you have given us today. thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you chris. glad to be here and talk about what is going on at sfo with what we're all living through. thank you so much. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more pandemic-related information shortly. you have been watching coping with covid-19. thank you for watching. ♪♪♪

>> this is a huge catalyst for change. >> it will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. >> now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to work together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. >> one of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for -- permit center. >> special events. we are a one stop shop for those three things. >> this has many different uses throughout if years. >> in 1940s it was coca-cola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are

retaining the clock tower. the permit center is little working closely with the digital services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. >> the digital services team was created in 2017. it is 2.5 years. our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. >> one of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. we have 58 different department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. >> we are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. it is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. our goal is you don't have to know the department. you are dealing with the city. >> now if you are trying to get

construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to work together to make it easy to comply with the rules. >> there are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. there is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. the first project is allowing people to apply online for the a.d.u. it is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. it is a very complicated permit. you have to speak to different departments to get it approved. we are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. some of the next ones are windows and roofing.

those are high volume permits. they are simple to issue. another one is restaurant permitting. while the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. people struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. >> the city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. >> when people arrive they canshay what they are here to. it helps them workout which cue they neat to be in. if they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. we say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. >> we want it all-in-one location across the many departments involved. it is clear where customers go to play. >> on june 5, 2019 the ceremony

was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. six months later construction is complete. >> we will be moving next summer. >> the flu building -- the new building will be building. it was designed with light in mind. employees will appreciate these amenities. >> solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. when you are on the higher floors of the building you might catch the tip of the golden gate bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. >> it is so exciting for the team. it is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. it is allowing the different departments to come together to issue permits to the residents.

we hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. we are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a high-quality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling in forms. they will have good conversations with our staff. >> candlestick park known also as the stick was an outdoor stadium for sports and entertainment. built between 1958 to 1960, it

was located in the bayview hunters point where it was home to the san francisco giants and 49ers. the last event held was a concert in late 2014. it was demolished in 2015. mlb team the san francisco giants played at candlestick from 1960-1999. fans came to see players such a willie mays and barry bonds, over 38 seasons in the open ballpark. an upper deck expansion was added in the 1970s. there are two world series played at the stick in 1962 and in 198 9. during the 1989 world series against the oakland as they were shook by an earthquake. candlestick's enclosure had minor damages from the quake but its design saved thousands of lives.

nfl team the san francisco 49ers played at candlestick from feign 71-2013. it was home to five-time super bowl champion teams and hall of fame players by joe montana, jerry rice and steve jones. in 1982, the game-winning touchdown pass from joe montana to dwight clark was known as "the catch." leading the niners to their first super bowl. the 49ers hosted eight n.f.c. championship games including the 2001 season that ended with a loss to the new york giants. in 201, the last event held at candlestick park was a concert by paul mccartney who played with the beatles in 1966, the stadium's first concert. demolition of the stick began in late 2014 and it was completed in september 2015. the giants had moved to pacific rail park in 2000 while the 49ers moved to santa clara in

2014. with structural claims and numerous name changes, many have passed through and will remember candlestick park as home to the legendary athletes and entertainment. these memorable moments will live on in a place called the stick. (♪♪♪) >> mayor breed: thank you. this is the beginning of a new year, after the end of a very long year. i am optimistic about what lies ahead for our city and our country, and i do believe there is hope on the horizon. that being said, we really -- wy

challenging days in front of us. our daily average case rates of 237 cases per day remains alarming. and we've never had so many people in the hospital with covid at one time. right now, in this very precarious moment, we are seeing what the impacts of the holidays will be. dr. kofax will provide more insight of those numbers, but we won't know the full affect of the holidays for the next few weeks. at this very point, san francisco and the bay area are under the stay-at-home order for the future. we have no control over lifting most restrictions, like those related to dining and personal services. what we do have control over is how we closely follow the health orders. we have control over our individual actions that can lead us to improve our numbers so we can keep people healthy, save lives, and get out of

these state restrictions. i know this continues to be so hard for everyone, especially our small businesses, that remain closed or are very limited in the services they can provide. we're doing everything we can to help. and today, at the board of supervisors, they will vote on legislation to waive fees. these are fees that are previously deferred and are scheduled to come due in march. frankly, it is not enough. we need to eliminate them entirely. our small businesses need any and all of the help they can get. while we have provided a lot of direct support for small businesses over the month, including over $25 million in grants and loans, we know we need to do more. that includes finding ways to provide more immediate relief, and we are working on that right now. we're also helping our small businesses apply for

new rounds of p.p.p. loans that are part of the new federal relief package. we know a lot of our small businesses are closed or are struggling to stay afloat, and we will keep working to find ways to support them in every way we can. we all have a long road ahead. december was a really hard month, and january is not going to be any easier. but, like i said, there is hope. the rollout of the vaccine is something like we've never seen. hundreds of millions of doses will be distributed around the country. this is going to take all of us working together. today we're joined by dr. josh aldler, who is the chief clinical officer of health and vice dean of the school of medicine. the doctor will speak a little about how ucsf is

participating in the rollout of the vaccine. it is important for everyone to remember that the distribution of the vaccine is different from how testing was set up in this country. with test, the federal government basically left it to the local and state governments to figure out, on our own, which is why we created our own city-run testing city, city test s.f., which puts san francisco at the forefront of providing testing in this country. but in an expensive and complicated system that we built from scratch. with the vaccine, the federal government has purchased the vaccine and is distributing them through established networks of state and health care providers. so the vaccine rollout is a lot bigger than the city and the department of public health. but we do have a role to play, and one of those roles is to distribute the vaccine to our city-run facilities.

that includes laguna honda hospital, where over 715 vulnerable residents currently live. the good news is that starting yesterday, working with walgreens, we started vaccinating the resident of laguna honda, and by tomorrow, all residents who want the vaccine will receive it. this is in addition to the over a thousand staff members who have already been vaccinated and more to come. now, it's important, for a moment, to take a step back. often these press conferences, we talk about numbers, we talk in data. we talk in concept, like infection rates and i.c.u. capacity. we say things like, we're going to -- we're taking certain actions to keep the virus out of laguna honda, but laguna honda is just a building. they attack our seniors.

and people living with disabilities are the most vulnerable. protecting the residents of laguna honda is very personal to me. my grandmother lived there for years at the end of her own life. so i know what those residents are feeling. i know what their families are feeling because they are not able to visit. our fight to keep the virus out of laguna honda has been a fight to keep these people alive, until we could do what we started doing yesterday: protecting them with the vaccine. i want to show a few pictures from yesterday. this is a photo of bernadette yee. she is someone who has been living for months and months in the type of facility that has seen outbreaks across this country. she, like so many others, have lived with the fear each and every day, and now she has the vaccine. now she and other residents of laguna honda are waking up today with an end in sight.

this next photo is jasper harris. while many of us had to sacrifice by staying home and limiting interactions, his sacrifice was to be in the facility where no one from the outside has been able to visit. he has had to deal with isolation and separation. thanks to the hard work of the staff at laguna honda, and all of the policies, our department of public health has put in place, he is alive and well, so that he can get the vaccine, so that he can keep on living his life. these are the lives we have been fighting for day after day to save. after months of uncertainty, they will now be protected. they are alive because of public health orders we put in place, because of the staff of the facility who have done their very best to care for them. because of the center of disease control who helped create a plan to protect this specific hospital. and because of everyone at

the department of public health, who has done the workday after day to keep our city safe. like i said, this is a moment, but it's a real moment of hope for our city. and we should be so proud. i know it is hard right now, but remember that each one of these people in laguna honda being vaccinated is someone who will continue to have birthdays with families and visits with friends. they will have more time. they will have months and years ahead that so many across this country, sadly, have lost to this virus. i know it is hard to see, but there is hope. the people of this city have rallied together, even though these truly difficult recent months -- through these difficult recent months, and soon we will push this city forward. i know that health orders can be hard to follow and

confusing. i know that people feel like the rules are shifting and changing and contradictory to one other. and even those who are doing their best aren't quite clear on what is okay and what is not okay. all we are asking is for you to do your very best, to use common sense, and to limit your interactions with others as much as possible, to help get us through this. we know it hasn't been easy. it has been tough on every one of us. and i would also ask that you have some understanding, some patience, and really some grace. we are all going through this together. it has been extremely challenging. so let's just remember the vaccine is here. these are difficult times, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. and i can't wait until we're able to get back together again and able to celebrate without a mask on. that day is coming. so let's get through this together. thank you, everyone, for all that you've done and what you've continued to

do. and now i'd like to introduce dr. adler to talk a little bit about what ucsf's role is in helping to distribute the vaccine. >> doctor: thank you very much, mayor breed. good morning to all of you. let me just start with a couple of comments about the public health orders. ucsf has been a partner in supporting the health orders from the beginning. we know they've been affective in helping to slow the spread of covid-19. we've seen this in our own data for our hospitals and our clinics, but, in particular, as we've examined the situations in other health systems throughout california or the united states, it is imminently clear that the san francisco health orders have helped to keep our case orders, and especially the numbers of hospitalized patients in san francisco, lower than most other urban areas. and the importance of this is that it has allowed our

hospitals to continue to function in a somewhat normal fashion, without becoming overwhelmed, as has happened elsewhere, both in our state and in the country. and that's enabled us to continue to serve all of the patients who need hospital care throughout the pandemic. so we are committed to continuing to work with the city and the county to support the residents through this pandemic. and i encourage you all to do the very best you can to ensure that you continue to comply with these health orders, as they are so important. let me turn to vaccines for a moment. so with the approval of two vaccines in the u.s., ucsf is now very focused on vaccination as supplies become available. i will say that the size and scale of this effort is unlike any we've ever seen. so let me describe briefly how ucsf as one health system is part of the chain to provide vaccines

to the people of san francisco. so ucsf is part of what is called a multi-county system. along with other facilities throughout california. as such, the vaccine is allocated to ucsf directly by the california department of public health. and then the deliveries come to ucsf from the vaccine manufacturers directly, based on the allocation of the california department of public health. it is clear that this is a major and complex initiative, and all of us are learning as we go. what is also clear is that we need to increase the rate at which we're able to deliver vaccine to people. and i believe that from the beginning of the time we started vaccinating two and a half weeks ago, that this is already happening. for example, at ucsf, we're now able to vaccinate up to 1100 people per day, and are working to increase this

number even further. at the moment, we are continuing to focus our efforts on vaccinating health care workers primarily, and hope to move on to additional groups in the next few weeks. and i can say that so far the supply of vaccine from the manufacturers and from the state has been able to keep up with the rate at which we are actually vaccinating people, and we hope that this will continue, particular as we increase the number of people we can vaccinate per day. thank you all. i'll turn it back to you, mayor breed. >> mayor breed: thank you so much. and now i want to turn it over to dr. grant colfax to provide an update on where we are in the city with our numbers. and thank you so much for joining us today, dr. colfax. >> doctor: good morning. and thank you, mayor breed. and thank you, dr. adler. we've always -- the health

department has always had a special relationship with ucsf, and we really appreciate the support during this unprecedented time. i also want to express our support for the people in communities and central and southern california, where the covid pandemic is particularly severe, and the situation is dire. and my gratitude to the thousands of people on the frontlines in san francisco fighting the virus every day. including in our hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, community testing sites, and now vaccination clinics. and, of course, to all of you who live and work in san francisco, who have sacrificed so much for nearly a year. a tough year. but i have great hopes for 2021, and i'm sure you do as well. and nearly 12 months into the pandemic, and with a

holiday, i know this has taken a toll on us, including on our mental health and well-being. so i want you to know that if you or someone needs help, it is available. you can call our behavioral health line 855-845-7415, to talk with someone who knows what it is like to struggle with behavioral health issues, or please reach out to your primary care provider or counselor. we need to care for ourselves and each other during this time. i hope we can all commit to that. another hope, of course, is that we will continue to join together to save lives and fight the current surge of covid-19, to vaccinate our residents and workers against it, and to finally overcome this pandemic that has dominated our lives.

the great news is that the vaccine is here. and it is being administered every day. but it will not have much of an impact on our current surge or any post-december holiday surge we may experience in the coming weeks. we remain in a serious and critical position, but our collective actions are making a difference. our cases of covid-19, and unfortunately our deaths due to covid-19 in san francisco, continue to increase, but the rate of increase seems to be slowing. however, at this time we do not know the full impacts of the december holiday. and it is plausible that we could see a sharp increase in cases, followed by hospitalizations, in the next few weeks. let's see where we currently are. can we have the slide, please. as this slide shows, our number of cases have been

on the uptake. this slide shows we are currently at 27 new covid positive cases per 100,000 people here in san francisco. and right now we are averaging about -- could we go to the slide before this, please? this is the slide. this slide shows that we're averaging about 27 cases per 100,000 people in san francisco. and we are averaging about 237 new cases of covid-19 every day. we have seen an increase, as you can see, since december 24th. but the 237 new cases per day is still a drop from about 290 new cases we were seeing in mid-december. but given the infectiousness of this virus, 237 is still far too many for us to let our guard down.

when we stay home, avoid gatherings, stay physically distant, and wear masks over both our noses and our mouths, we will drive this number down. we will keep our fellow san franciscans and ourselves from getting sick, help prevent hospitalizations, and make sure that we are all here for the vaccine. next slide, please. now, this shows the hospitalizations of people with covid-19 since the pandemic began. as you can see, the number of covid-19 -- people with covid-19 who need hospital care continues to climb, as we would expect when the number of cases climb. but thanks to your efforts with regards to precautions, hospitalizations appear to be climbing more slowly now. but, as with cases

overall, we will not know until mid-january how many people got covid-19 over the christmas and new year's holiday, and became seriously ill, requiring hospitalization. that's just based on how long it takes for people to show symptoms and become severely ill with covid-19. it usually takes up to a week, and even two. currently, and unlike many parts of this state, hospitals in san francisco have enough room to care for covid-19 and other patients. locally, we have roughly 35% of i.c.u. beds available. however, across the region, just 5.9% of beds are available. and because our regional i.c.u. bed availability remains well-below the state's threshold of 15%, we here in san francisco will remain under the

state regional stay-at-home order. and, as you know, the situation is much worse in central valley and in southern california. and while we have those i.c.u. beds now in san francisco, it is plausible, with our regional or statewide surge, that those numbers of i.c.u. capacity will drop sharply, perhaps due to a worsening of our local situation, or because of needs in the region and the state. staying home, as hard as it is, is keeping our already strained health system from being overwhelmed. it is saving lives. now i want to talk a little bit about vaccines. we are working with our health care partners, including ucsf, throughout the city, to get as much vaccine into as many arms as possible. unlike testing, we do not have local control of when

vaccine is sent to san francisco. or how much is received. the federal and state government have developed a distribution plan for the vaccine, and the state has defined the prioritization plan, which we must follow locally. that distribution plan ships the vaccine directly to health care providers, such as kaiser, ucsf, and d.p.h., which is a health care provider in the city, primarily for people who have medicaid or who are uninsured. with the exception of the vaccine, d.p.h., the health department, gets from the state, we currently have no ability to track the amount of vaccine that is being sent to providers. i can tell you this, that the department of public health, as a health care provider, has vaccinated more than 6,000 people.

most frontline acute care staff at zuckerberg san francisco hospital and laguna honda have been vaccinated, and nearly all paramedics and e.m.t.s have been offered the vaccine. and after today, over 90% of the residents at laguna honda will have received the first dose of the pfizer vaccine. that is great news. given the limited initial supply of covid-19 vaccine, the state has developed a phase approach for which group of people will get the vaccine and when. the first phase, the phase we are in now, defined by the state as phase 1a, prioritizes those workers in health care settings most likely to be exposed to the virus, and most needed to support our health care system. in san francisco, that is estimated to be over

80,000 health care workers, including nurses, doctors, technicians, environmental service workers, nutrition service workers, e.m.t.s, paramedics, and many, many others. the majority of these workers are being vaccinated by their employer, whether it be the health department, c.p. m. c., ucsf, kaiser, and so far. we are waiting for the state to finalize the next phase, which is proposed to include frontline essential workers, such as public safety, grocery workers, teachers, and those over the age of 75. and we are working with the city's health care providers and pharmacies to scale up vaccine delivery. since the federal and state government are distributing vaccine directly to health care providers, these partnerships are vital to

our collective success locally, as a region, and across the state. we are discussing with our health partners ways to increase vaccination capacity. our goal is to ensure that vaccination is provided to as many people as possible, and as soon as we get vaccine. this is an unprecedented undertaking, the mass vaccination of the entire nation to end the pandemic. we are working hard, but right now vaccine supply remains limited, and many questions remain unanswered with regard to how soon vaccines supplies will meet demand. but please know, and we expect, that everyone who wants a vaccine will get one eventually, and we will work together, as we have done throughout this pandemic, to make this happen.

while we planned for the availability of the vaccine, we still must make a difference in this current surge by supporting each other and continuing to make good and smart choices that we know slow the spread of the virus, such as wearing a mask over both your nose and your mouth when you go outside, avoiding gatherings outside of your immediate household, and physically distancing whenever possible. as we start this new year, nearly 12 months into this pandemic, believe me, i'm counting the days, let's remember that our collective actions have changed the course of the virus in march and july. we can, and we will, do it again. thank you. >> thank you, mayor breed, dr. adler, and dr. colfax. before we start the "q"

and "a," we're going to take a moment for our reporters to submit questions on webex. we'll be right back. >> dr. colfax, are you ready? >> doctor: i'm ready, hello. >> dr. colfax, your first set of questions comes from various news outlets. california has six confirmed cases of the new coronavirus strain. which strain is more contagious and severe, and is there any new and detailed plan to stop spreading the strain. and there is a followup question: how can san francisco track the

possible new strain? >> doctor: so when you're referring to the -- >> the u.k. >> doctor: -- the u.k. strain, we know that the u.k. strain now is responsible for the majority of infections in the u.k., and, as we know, it has been detected across many parts of this country. we have not yet detected the new strain here in san francisco, but it certainly would not be surprising if and when it does get detected. and a number of laboratories, including at ucsf are genotyping of the virus, a select sample, to determine if and when this strain does show up. unfortunately, there is not a lot of capacity to do that, so only a very small member of samples are sent to laboratories

for this sub-typing, but we would not be surprised if and when it is detected in san francisco or in the region. a couple of things about the virus: while it does appear to be more transmissible than other variants of the virus, it does not appear to be more lethal. and there is no reason at this time to believe that it is somehow resistant to the vaccine. and i think, most importantly, for people going about their lives right now, it just reinforces the need for us to practice those prevention activities, to wear a mask over both your nose and your mouth, to physically distance, and, again, not to gather because with more virus out there than ever before, and with the likelihood that this variant is out there, the things that we may have done in the past that we avoided getting infected, those activities are much more risky now.

>> thank you, dr. colfax. the next set of questions also come from multiple news outlets. why does san francisco have so much more i.c.u. availability than the regional average? even some counties that have had similar public health responses. and the followup is: could you expand on what you said about san francisco's i.c.u. capacity potentially dropping because of needs across the state? >> doctor: sure. i think right now our i.c.u. capacity is really good shape compared to certainly the rest of the state, for a number of factors. primarily, we have as a community so far weathered the worst of surges, so we don't have as many people proportionately in our hospital system because of covid-19 because of all of the efforts we have invested and the sacrifices we have made.

the other key piece right now is seasonally, during the holidays and right after the holidays, there are generally fewer people in the hospital for elective surgeries and so forth, and so we have more hospital capacity for that reason as well. and we have been working very hard with our hospital partners in the city to ensure that i.c.u. capacity is maintained as much as possible. with regard to that i.c.u. capacity being used for other -- for people in need across the state, and even, indeed, across the region, there is a statewide system by which hospitals, regions, can ask for assistance to transfer patients when they run out of capacity, to transfer patients into another jurisdiction. right now, for instance, we have more patients in our i.c.u.s across the

city who are from outside of san francisco. and while we have care available and people need care, it is the moral and ethical and right thing to do to provide that care when asked and when needed. and, again, we are watching that number very careful -- our capacity very carefully because as the central and southern part of the state continue to experience catastrophic situations, and as the region has fewer i.c.u. beds, we would expect our local i.c.u. bed capacity to start going down as well. obviously, i hope that doesn't happen, but it certainly is plausible at this time. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next set of questions, again, come from various outlets. and it's a two-part question. how many vaccine doses has san francisco received from the state, and of

those, how many doses have been administered. and a followup: how often is san francisco receiving vaccine doses? >> doctor: so dr. adler mentioned the multi-county entities, kaiser, and others are receiving the vaccine allocated by the state. we don't have those numbers. right now the state is working on data systems to have that visibility, but i don't have those numbers, unfortunately, available. they have not been made available to us. i know the state is working very hard to get those numbers to local jurisdictions. what i can tell you is that the health department has distributed -- has -- has delivered 6,000 vaccines to people in our system, the frontline workers at zuck ber zuckerberg

hospital, and our e.m.t.s, and others. so we are distributed 6,000 vaccines. d.p.h. received 30,000 vaccines that were distributed to these other entities across the city. after that, the state switched to the small county entities distribution system, and we do not have those numbers available at this time. >> thank you. again, the next question is from various news outlets. has san francisco hospitals had any excess supply of vaccines? and if so, how have they determined how to distribute them? >> doctor: well, i wish that were the case. i can say we are pushing vaccines out into arms as quickly as possible. i know all of the entities in the city are doing

that. that has not been an issue. we're getting vaccines into arms, and certainly demand for the vaccine far outweighs supply. and we are working with our county partners to scale up vaccine distribution as quickly as possible, so that we will be ready when more vaccine comes. again, right now the demand far outweighs the supply. we are still in the phase 1a, and as required by the state, that phase 1a tier, we estimate that is over 80,000 people who live or work in san francisco who need vaccines. this is, remember, the first dose. we're just starting the second doses this week. >> thank you. this question from various news outlets: what are the city's plans for administering the vaccine to san francisco's immigrant community and people who are undocumented? >> doctor: so vaccines will, most likely, be

distributed through health care providers. and we will be doing extensive outreach with health care providers, through media, through trusted community partners, community stakeholders, community-based organizations, to let people know that vaccine is available. as you know in san francisco, we have a robust health care system. anyone, regardless of immigration status, receives top-quality care, including at the health department, and we are working very, very hard with stakeholders in communities, including immigrant communities, to ensure that people understand about the vaccine, and that people are able to -- will be able to access vaccine when it is available. >> thank you. the next question comes from multiple news outets. new york city is setting up mass vaccination sites

and its five boroughs to avoid delays in getting people vaccinated. is that possible in san francisco? >> doctor: so there have been no delays in getting people vaccinated. the demand far outweighs the supply. we are working with our health care providers, who we expect will be receiving the majority of the vaccines, kaiser, which as we know, covers many, many people, dignity health, and of course, here at the health department, to explore whether we can -- whether the vaccine will be more rapidly distributed and made available to people through these types of mass vaccination sites. and we are working with them to ensure that, again, the vaccine gets into as many arms as quickly as possible. our goal is to make sure that vaccine is not sitting in the freezer, and that as soon as the feds and the sat supply vaccine to local

jurisdictions, to health care entities in san francisco, that we get it into as many arms as possible. >> thank you. the next set of questions come from multiple outlets: how will san francisco determine who will be next in line for vaccines? and is san francisco taking any covid-19 patients from outside the county and/or region? >> doctor: so i will answer that second question first. as i said, there are four patients who are transferred from -- that we know of that are transferred from outside of san francisco in our current hospital systems across the city. so that total is four. with regards to determining who goes next for the vaccine, we are required to follow the state recommendations. again, we are in that phase 1a, and we are waiting for the state to

finalize 1b, which includes essential workers and people 75 and over. and it is anticipated there will be a phase 1c, and we will following the state guidelines in terms of prioritizing those populations for vaccine. >> thank you. and, dr. colfax, your final question from the day, from various news outlets: what is the current situation with infections at laguna honda, prior to vaccinations? >> doctor: so i think the really great news is that vaccinations started yesterday for residents at laguna honda. over 300 were vaccinated. we expect vaccinations to be completed by tomorrow. right now we have 15 laguna honda residents who have been diagnosed with covid-19, and we have 34 staff who were diagnosed. >> thank you, dr. colfax,

for your time today. this concludes today's press conference. we want to thank mayor breed, dr. adler, and yourself, dr. colfax, for your time. for future questions... kids, n terrors. we see again, across -- -- >> you're watching coping with covid-19 with chris manners. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. today, my guest is an infeshttious disease specialist and leading the covid disease tracing team for the san

francisco department of public health. she's here to talk about the city's contact tracing program and how to slow the spread of the virus. doctor, welcome to the show. >> thank you so much for having me. >> can we begin by talking about when the city's contact tracing program began and what are the services? >> sure. so we began contact tracing on the first day that we had a case here in san francisco, so that was march 5 of this year. the purpose of our program is to provide comprehensive services to people who are close to and diagnosed with covid. this includes anyone who's newly diagnosed gets a phone call from our trained health professionals in which we talk more about their diagnosis, make sure that they have accurate information. we then go into understanding a little bit more about their symptoms and trying to better understand when they first may have become infectious to

others. as part of that, we will then talk about anyplaces they may have visited for an extended period of time and people they were in contact with. we then seek to better understand the individuals that they were in touch with by collecting names and phone numbers so that then we can reach out to these individuals and make sure that they have the information that they need in order to quarantine and get access to immediate testing for covid. >> how does the program work? how many people are actually acting as contact tracers, and what do they do? >> so we had over 100 people activated with the city to provide active contact tracing actions for san franciscans. so this team is highly trained in being able to provide everyone diagnosed with covid with information about what this means to them and make sure that they know the resources that are available to

them so that they can safely isolate. this team then also has worked with several social workers as well as other city departments to make sure that this individual has wraparound services in order to complete their isolation in quarantine. in general, we have staff that represents all diverse backgrounds in san francisco, and they are also able to provide linguistically appropriate services to make sure we are able to meet the needs of the people being diagnosed. >> that's great. when we run a huge program in the mission district, what role did contact tracing play in that effort. was there anything notable? >> so previous to this pandemic, san francisco public health has been tracking communities disproportionately affected by covid-19.

we provided a large community-based testing campaign in the mission. as part of this campaign, we found that while latinos made up 44% of the people who were tested, they made up 95% of people who ended up being diagnosed. we also found that 90% of the people who were diagnosed with covid-19 could not work from home, suggesting that this disease is impacting communities that may be unable to work from home or have the resources to stay at home during their shelter in place order. so as part of these activities, it's really a reflection of what we're seeing citywide in that we need to make sure that people who are at the greatest risk for covid have the resources needed in order to take time off of work as necessary, as they're diagnosed with covid. >> i think as we've seen in new york, density is a huge factor, so it makes sense that there

would be quite a few cases in the mission district. >> yeah. we did find that the median size of the household was greater than three, and the majority of people who had been diagnosed with covid, so this does go back to the fact that covid is really likely to transmit within households, and we need to make sure that households have the information that they need if somebody is diagnosed with covid, and that they can appropriately cleanup, clean their spaces, and they can self-isolate, and as necessary, they have access to city funded hotel rooms where they can safely isolate or quarantine for the required period of time and reduce their risk of spreading covid to others. >> just to confirm, these tests are completely free, right? what kind of turnaround do we have? >> so fortunately, san

francisco offers free testing to san franciscans who have even one symptom consistent with covid-19. what you need to know about this testing is that you have to schedule it on-line, but that you don't need any medical insurance, and you don't need a doctor's note. in addition, testing is available to all san franciscans regardless of immigration status. you'll be able to get your test results in just one to five days after getting a test, and you'll get follow up through the health department if you're found to have covid-19, including access to all of our tracing activities that i've talked about today. so if you have an opportunity to test for covid, i recommend that you go for it because it's important that we all really understand that testing is part of our new normal and a really important pillar for our fight against covid transmission here in san francisco. >> now, some communities have been responding differently to

the virus. some have been asking their citizens to keep a diary so they can remember who they've seen, while others are encouraged to download an app to their phone so they can keep track of tracing. have we considered any of these steps. >> so a major part of tracing is to talk to someone about where they've been and who they've been in contact with prior to developing symptoms or on the date of their test. this requires jogging somebody's memory, and as we all know, it can be hard to recall all of the things that one has participated in days -- in the past several days. so we recommend that everyone pay attention to what they're doing as we lift our shelter in place orders, and we are carefully looking at the possibility of being able to support and being able to understand where someone may have been and who else may have been exposed to covid.

but as part of that, we're keeping careful caution and doing our due diligence to ensure that people's privacy and confidentiality is maintained. this is the number one priority for us in the department of public health. we want anything that we offer through an app to be supplementing instead of replacing our currently contact tracing efforts. >> so it seems like any app-based program the city might offer would be on a strictly opt-in basis? >> absolutely. we would want people to choose whether or not they want to participate in any of these app-based programs, and it would strictly be voluntarily if they were diagnosed with covid and they wanted to share information with the department of public health and others. we really want to make sure that any app that we recommend as a department is completely

confidential and maintains the highest levels of privacy, and also is able to supplement our current offering of contact tracing and not become a distraction whereby people are getting notified that don't have contacts or information that they need in order to take the appropriate next steps. >> yeah. i think it would address people's concerns if it's strictly voluntarily whether you use the app or not. so finally, what would you say to our residents is the best way to stay safe during this pandemic? >> well, i like to boil is down to a short little phrase. cover your face, test early, and trace. and what i mean by that, as well as our shelter in place restrictions, we really want people to continue into their new normal life wearing a mask. we know that this is a very protective way of preventing

the spread of covid, and we want everyone to adopt this practice in their life as they move forward. we also want people to pay a lot of attention to their bodies as we begin to get back into the world as well as any symptoms that may be consistent with covid-19. fortunately, we have the tests here in san francisco to make sure that every san franciscan can access a test if they have symptoms. so if somebody is experiencing any symptoms, we want them to seek out those testing services immediately and isolate and note their results. and finally, if somebody is diagnosed with covid-19, we want to make sure that they have been paying attention to who they've been spending time with in the days prior to their symptoms or the days prior to their tests. so that includes an element of tracing your foot steps, as i like to say, and being mindful

of your actions, particularly any interactions where you may not have been masked or may have been spending time with people over ten minutes and less than 6 feet apart. by keeping track of people you may have been in contact with, it'll be much easier to work with the health department and reach out to those individuals to make sure that they know that they were exposed to somebody with covid-19 and they can get the appropriate testing and quarantine so we can ongoingly reduce the risk of transmission to others. >> that's really fantastic information, doctor. i really appreciate the time you've given us today. i know you're really busy. >> yeah, i appreciate the conversation. >> thanks again. that's it for this episode of coping with covid-19.

for sfgtv, i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

[♪♪♪] >> i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldn't just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [♪♪♪] >> i would say i am a multidimensional artist. i came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. i always have an interest in public art. i really believe that art should

be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. you shouldn't just be something in museums. i love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. public art is art with a job to do. it is a place where the architecture meets the public. where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. we commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material. it is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and recreation centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. colette test on a number of those projects for its. one of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as

several parks, and the steps. >> mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. you need to use a tool, nippers, as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. i glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [♪♪♪]

>> we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. so we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually. [♪♪♪] >> my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful. and also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of

water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. so one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [♪♪♪] >> there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. during the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. there was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school,

i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. it is a little bird. the relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city an exciting place.

i want to welcome and invite on you new directors to introduce themselves. welcome. we are happy to have a full board for the first time in -- i think it has been a year. welcome. i am sure other board members are happy to say. i want to invite you