i within the commission's jurisdiction that is not part of this agenda. >> caller: good morning. my name is jerry dratler. there has been a lot of talk about reforming you address functional dbi special inspection process. the san bruno project is one of the most extreme examples. the project structural engineer record and the supervisor structural engineer of the independent inspection service both submitted final inspection reports claiming the san bruno

>> caller: i don't know how we're going to comply. it forces homeowners to sprinkle their buildings. it's going to be a huge added cost. it's very difficult to get things accomplished in because of the high construction costs and i really hope that the commission can step in and open this up for public discussion and make sure that we're not doing something without understanding the consequences which seems to be a pattern in san francisco with making these regulations. so i hope that we can continue this discussion if dbi doesn't pull the trigger on something without thorough consideration. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comment, caller. would you like to say your name? you don't have to if you don't want to. >> i think he hung up. >> clerk: okay. thank you. is there any other callers who would like to speak?

if you would like to speak, please press star three. >> there are no other hands raised. >> clerk: okay. thank you. and our next item then is item four, general public comment. i'm sorry. we did four. item five is closed session. public employee appointment, director of the department of building inspection 5a. is there a public comment on matters pertaining to the closed session? is there any public comment on the closed session item? >> there are no hands raised. >> clerk: okay. then our next item is b, possible action to convene a closed session. is there a motion to convene in closed session? >> commissioner: motion to convene. >> clerk: is there a second?

>> commissioner: second. >> clerk: okay. i'll do a roll call vote on the item to convene the session. [roll call] all commissioners are in favor. that motion carries unanimously. we will now go into closed session. for any members of the public, the meeting will be in closed session, and the

and that emerged from this process that are still before the ethics commission. at the third phase of the

project is still ongoing. we anticipate delivering a report in december and that report will look at the number of miscellaneous topics within the gifts umbrella these are things like bribery or penalties, statements of incompatible activities, etc. . there's a draft ordinance being used for discussion purposes for this phase as well. so the first phase as i'll mention discusses payments and we presented that report november 2020. i'll be glad to sell any of these reports for your reference . the main recommendation that emerged from this part of the project was to prohibit city officials andemployees from soliciting payments from interested parties . the payment in case you're not familiar with this, the payments made to a third party is often a charitable organization and is made at th request of a government official or employee . the interested party is someone who has some kind of official business before that government

official. could be a contract, a license, something the official is involved in his or her official capacity and making decisions on. for obvious reasons it's important to make sure officials are not asking people or relying on them to make important sometimes financially valuable decisions.not asking those people to make payments that couldbe used as a channel for bribes . a big part of the federal investigation including the individuals within dbi that payments can be used as a way to try to use financial payments to influence the actions of government official . as i mentionedlegislation that contains this rule, this new prohibition is pending before the rules committee and board ofsupervisors . this brings me to second phase and i'll go into greater detail here. so the second phase discusses

gets . we rolled together the two parts of this phase and itmeans guest made directly to individuals gets made through the city department . first of all it's useful to talk about what is a gift? a gift is a payment that can first personal benefit on the recipient and consideration of equal career value is not received . you can think of it as anything of value you receive that you don't pay full price for. itcould be free or at a discount and itcould be pretty much anything . cash, goods, services, loans . it's a pretty broad concept . serious ethical issues that do business with the city. gifts can also create an opportunity for pay to play that can be used as bribes. theycertainly can create the appearance of undue influence and perhaps most fundamentally

can damage the public's trust . some examples of that. you'll remember from the ongoing federal corruption probe there were allegations of gifts being given. money, free meals, even a tractor to the former dpw director. also a watch that a contractor pled guilty to bribery charges andadmitted to giving as an attempt to influence officials action . also free tickets to live performance events. those can be gifts that are given from a restricted source to an individual. sometimes through a city department that can create similar ethics problems. i think it's also helpful to frame how gifts are currently regulated. there regulated under state law and san francisco law. the state law is pretty much confined to disclosure and a limit.

these rules only apply if you are a 400 filing so if you are an official, a commissioner, department head or an employee wasbeen designated by the department as someone , and present roughly of the city workforce. if you are a form 700 filing state law requires you to disclose gifts and it's also limits you to only accepting $520 of total in gifts from a recordable sourceduring a calendar year. that's pretty much the extent of how state law regulates gifts. you can think of these as pretty much applying to that narrow 700 filers . it applies to all gets but there are a lot of exceptions. and that comes tothe first bullet point i call under state law . it defines many gifts but many exceptions to that. on the other hand san francisco law applies to all officers and employees but it creates prohibitions rather than disclosures . it specifies anarrow subset of

gifts and prohibits them . the main gift rule that does that is the restricted source rule that you might be familiar with and essentially it says the officers and employees cannot accept gifts from restricted sources. restricted sources is one of two things, it's a person who is doing or speaking to do business with the official department doing business to defined as being a contractor and the contractor with that department or if a person who has sought to influence the officer in the last 12 months. that can be a lobbyist or permit consultant trying to influence you. it could be the client paying that person to try to influence you or could be somebody who is contacted you outside of public comment,public comments account for anything that goes on public record these are private communications somebody who's trying to influence your official actions

. either of these two kinds of people arerestricted source to not accept a gift . and there are sections to that which i'll talk about . so as part of our research we tried to identify problems with gift practices and with the laws andloopholes and oversights so the first and obvious one , theallegations that rise from federal complaints so i have subsided on previously . i think in addition we did a review of 4700 filings to try to see if filers were recording gets that appeared to be from restricted sources. we dididentify a number of them and we think that there is additional noncompliance out there that is problematic . and then thirdly we looked at effective sources giving gifts through city departments. and with that it looks like it essentially is this where the respective source if it the gift is going directly to the restricted source to a city

official, under the restricted source rule the city officials clearlyprohibited from accepting that what you see is restricted sources giving gifts to a city department and then the city department passing the gets along to the officials . that same outcome is achieved or or results under that potential or not that something is paid for by the restricted source confers a personal benefit on two city officials but there appears to be an understanding that that doesn't run afoul of the rule. that's something we've identified as problematic definitely needs to be remedied . and again, just to reiterate these problems create potentials for bribery. it can lead to pay to play insofar as they act as loopholes they can undermine the existing ethics laws and at the end of the day it's on to the public's confidence in the city which is what you're dealing with in large part right now is a problem in public confidence. so what we sought to do is a limited loopholes, try to make

therules more robust. more broadly applicable. make them stronger and improve their clarity so people can understand and a little bit better and they don't seem so confusing . so the proposals that we've made for gift rules are for one to create the definition of gift within city law instead of justusing the state definition that carries many exceptions , many of which are not appropriate in the context of the restricted source rule we think we should define it locally as we've done for other gift rule against gifts from subordinates. we need to have a definition of gift that applies to their respected source rule as well and choose througha very deliberative process what actually exceptions are actually appropriate to apply, not adopt wholesale all the same exceptions . we i recommend that the rule be applied more broadly to all the different aspects of the gift transaction. soyou remember that slide i showed earlier when we said it's a gift going directly to

the city official .it goes throughthe city department . we've also seen instances where a gift goes through a different kind ofintermediate like a nonprofit organization or non-city individual like a relative of the city official . so we think it's important to clarify that however the gift transaction operates , that if anybody knows or has reason to know that the source is paid for my restricted source it's going to a city official, that is probably okay to act as an intermediary. is not okay or the restricted source to get the gift it's not okay to try to use the intermediary and potentially try to get around the rule . and if you're a city official and you know you're getting a gift from somebody who's not a restricted source but it was paid for by restricted source you could still not accepted . this is essentially a wayto expand the role and cover more different kinds of steps in a multi step gift transaction . they also think it's important to clarify what it means to do

business so youremember this is one of the two ways that someone becomes a restricted source doing business with official department . right now it's limited to just contracting with the department . for one it's important to clarify what that means. there is no definition to be clarified but more importantly it's toexpand this to cover other kinds of approval other than approving contracts . the city departments do and i think most relevant to your department is issuing permits . any person who is issued or seeks a permit , a license or other entitlement for use should be considered to be doing business withthe department . these approvals can be valuable as you know. people spend money trying to get them just like they do contracts so they should be considered doing business as well. additionally i think it's very relevant to your work we recommendthat permit expediters for permit consultantsjust like lobbyists , not be allowed to get gifts. that's already the case for lobbyists . renters are contact lobbyists

for they can't get a gift to cityofficial or city officers i should say. elected officials . and we think the same thing is true for permit expediters. for officials within a permit issuingdepartment. so this would be another thing to be added. and then final set of proposals , number seven is to explicitly applythe restricted source rule to affiliates or entities . that would be 10 percent shareholders . anyone holding the 10 percent. any directors, officers who don't want people to think that they can only for their only prohibited from accepting gift from the entity itself . it's also important to note they can't accept gifts from somebody with that entity. and also to then the existing local exceptions to the restricted source rule i should mention state exceptions. we also have local sections

that need to be changed aswell. and this is number nine and 10, sorry about that . number nine then the local exceptions tosupport the gift rule . not something we focused on as much as the restricted source rule but a different gift rule that alternates should be observed and we also think it's important for there to be a single standardized disclosure from gifts to city departments. right now there are three different disclosure requirements for gifts to the citydepartment . each one a little bit different and we found through research none of them provides what we think is transparency in gifts to departments. having one disclosure requirement electronicallywould be much more efficient and effective and departments would be better situated to comply with the public would be better positioned to access that information . and the last thing that i want to mention is ethics commissionsalways hear any tucker with departments .

that's a look atyour reform initiatives as you go out to help in any way . plot any efforts the departmen takes to try to improve accountability and transparency . also stakeholderengagement . wealways welcome departments to give us input on policy projects like this . it helps to know where you stand and do you have feedback? also i want to highlight that in the coming months hopefully sometime in the next calendar year the ethics commission will roll out a new program called ethics at work that will be a new way to engagedepartments to try to not only trainthem but also be a resource with compliance materials , lots of different ways to try to help people learn what their ethical obligations are . i know the controller report about dvi they talked about

setting a better tone at the top and talked about trying to ensure better ethics training andhaving folks attest to having received ethics training and this is definitely something we want to see citywide . and lastly just something that's already available, always there and you can see guidance from ethics commissions and i included our main phone number and email addressthere . anytime you or anyone at the department has questions about existing ethics laws our office is always here to help advise on that and my email address is there to for any kind of engagement or partnership that you might want to do in the future. so i'll just leave you with this as something i would like to talk about whatever we're talking about policy just from the funding and purpose within the government ethics movement and it says government decisions of officers and employees of the city and county should be and should appear to be made on a fair and impartial basis and i think sometimes achieving that second

part can be harder. it makes us have to go the extra step not just that we know what we're doing is very impartial but also that the people of the city who don't have the same expertise or site line as we do as far as processes it always looks from the outside to be very impartial can be a lot higher bar i think that'sa better bar for us to set . so i'm glad to answer any questions that you might have and again just really appreciate you wanting to have this conversation >> that you very much doctor period president mccarthy . >> is very informative and it's hard to sit on the commission right now and seeing that we come from the privateworld and we're not around these rules and revelations all the time . i think it's sometimes difficult because it's complicated especially if you

didn't come fromthat world . until you come to the private sector and you work here so it's an education to even new commissioners. that's my number one thing is somebody that's served. try to get up to speed on what is the law of the land right now when you sit on theseats for permission so it's good and i appreciate . i have a few quick questions and iknow if i may, at the start of your presentation , you said there was 13 people back to the start. 13 people that are like you start out, i wonder if you could slow down. i want to break down information would be. >> so that individuals have been charged so far as part of the role corruption probe. that includes city and non-city people. most of them are non-city so

those are contractors. most of them city contractors, two individuals from oncology and a number of executives from other citycontracting companies. >> so total city . that's important. let's take it down to who in the city. >> it's a narrower subset of individuals who are actually city officers or employees so there are two city department heads. two city employees and one former city commissioner so of course the former city commissioner of dvi or rather bic commissioner. one of the city employees or dvi employees and the two department heads, general manager of the publicutilities commission and director of public works . i think i skipped it but the other city employee is in the mayor's office.>> president:

okay.so in dbi there is one. or two, sorry. >> you have theformer commissioner and one employee and the former department head in charge . i count that under the category of resigned orterminated . those are not people who have been charged but they left city service. >> president: as part of the investigation but not being charged .not talking aboutthe commissioner now. the one dbi employee charged . >> to my knowledge, yes. >> i may i just go through the commissioner and commissioner tam please. vice president if you have questions. >> thank you patrick for taking

the time really showing up because i know this came up in the rules and regulations. this is something that thedvi had already implemented and trying to work through this . i appreciate you spending your services to help us with that. and i hope dvi take you up on that and of course together a good ethics as part of a good ethics practice is necessary and willstart that culture of the practice . of ethics and have it become point where it is no longer practice but it's more workplace environment today. thank you for your time and i appreciate that. >> thank you commissioner alexander-tut. >> thank you so much. i would when you, when the language is finalized around what it means to like around the permit because there's so many kinds of permits it's such a big universe of what it means to be a permit holder it can be

every homeowner in san francisco potentially is what that means is so that we can understand that and implement that. i think it would be helpful . . if you have more about that that would be great to hear about or that's definitely an invitation back.i think that understanding thescope of what that means . and because to the health department permit somehow. there's just been so many different kinds of permits that touch dvi. but just really understanding what that means it's not just construction making sure we really clear about that . and then is there any intention on clarifying or updating the pre-existing relationships. that definition.of the cause just kind of understanding that as well.

>> absolutely to your first point. to me what you're describing is what i would see as one of the top reasons to engage with the department ofstakeholders which is that you have a line of sight as towhere the rubber meets the road . we don't see that .we don't see the day in day out administration of permit processes and we want our rule to make sense in that context. we want them to be rules that people can apply in practice so i think that's where the partnership comes in. meetings and sit down and stop about your the intent of this rule. how do you see that playing out and talk to managers and supervisors abouthow this process works so however we can set that up i definitely want to have that conversation first . and yes, to your second point we are looking at that rule and that third and final phase of this project is kind of the assorted ethics topics .

that's section 3.214 of code that requires all city officials and employees to disclose personal professional business relationships with people who are the subject of decisions they are making . if the relationship would cost someone to reasonably question whether or not that person is acting impartially.it's kind of long complicated rules with a lot of moving pieces and that's part of what we're trying to address is how dowe make that clear when you have to do this disclosure and be how do departments administrate ? i think if you ask the department you'd get different answers which you can get more experience as youtalk with departments. another part of that is the consequence that people don't make that disclosure there should be consequences . i think providingclarity is ultimately part of the equation . >> that would be helpful and

get clarity and understanding when that comes into play and at what level . all of that would be really helpful and also just defining who you have a financial relationship with. all those fuzzy terms that i think could be defined in a way that would help itbe much easier to create rules around . thank you for this endeavor. it looks like a lot of work and all the background that's going on i think is successful so thank you for coming and thank you on behalf of the board. >> president:commissioner bito please . >> can you hear me? thank you for thepresentation . as a new commissioner i have had questions over the past

year about the itemsthat you brought up . which is a pretty thick government manual that was written by at the time jay herrera. and i just want to be clear. i think one of the things that you presented at the onset of your presentation is that as the commission and commissioners were cognizant of this and i had to ask a lot of questions being a new commissioner and as somebody who's engaged with clients and communities and people that are in my business so is there going to be some clarity between your presentation and all these investigations that's good governance ... sort of just like a cheat sheet where

we could look at this and reference it instead of ... i've had to reference that once in a while and i've met with city attorneys if i had questions about something coming up. is there a reference that we could easily look at that's two or threepages instead of two or three inches thick ? >> absolutely. two thoughts on that. one is as part of that ethics at work program that we're rolling out that kind of written compliance document is something we want to do. we've heard similar sentiments from so many people that there's just that need for that and it totally makes sense. you want something you can grab. you don't want to have to dig into a long document. iapplaud you for consulting the

government guide. it's a comprehensive resource but it's more of a reference for those of us that do this work .i don't think it's ever really meant to be a go to reference for folks that aren't steeped in this stuff. so i totally hear you that it can be difficult and a little overwhelming to consult with this. that's part of ethics at work that we want to bedoing face-to-face engagement and also having resources like that that people can consult on demand . secondthought is something that we're looking at as part of this final phase of the project . it's a statement of incompatible activities that each department has to adopt and some people think of their state incompatible activities as what we're describing so people think of itas a quick note to reference. there's two problems with that . one it's not quick and easyto read . they're often long and complicated and too they are not complicated but all the ethics rules that you need to befamiliar with . it's a peculiar subset of rules.

there's really no clear limits or of what thisuniverse of rules is that there are a lot of rules outside that we need to know . so we want to instead of having a statement that's flawed and something that's easier toread and comprehensive so we want to put that in people's hands . you can have that cause i think it totally makes sense and when. compliance it would be much easier and just more of it. >> given that we know you have the potential resource that if you have questions about like business activities that we might be engaged in that we could meet with you or confirm with you about someof our questions , there's one person that i was introduced to early on as part of the vetting

process and would you beanother person that we could also check for as a resource ?>> i think you're talking about some of the ethics commission staff. >> i think the city attorney's office and mayor's office . i'm just saying that i conferred withthem to ask any questions . and then to get clarity on things that, and things just you don't think about prior to being on this board are things that you have to start thinking about so is this double checking sometimes even having that checklist is double checking sometimes you know, potential activities or whatever. so i presume you would be a resourcefor the commission to as role . >> you should always think of theethics commission as a

resource . a resource of resort even to reach out to us.if it's not me, we have a whole team and engagement compliance. thatserves regulated faults . city officers for candidates or lobbyists. anybody who's subject to our rules and contact us for advice anytime. so you can contact me and if i'm not the right person to answer i'll get you in touch. you can always also contactyour main office or our main email address. our phone number includes the slides and i'll show you those if you have them another way to quickly get in touch with folks . >> my last request is that given the focus of the departments that you've been underinvestigation , if that program or that summary is that something that you can make an

appointment to get the commission i think that would be useful in the future. >> absolutely, when i reach out i'll include all the reports to so that you've got thoseand that would be ideal to hear any feedback or stock you have on that . >> commissioner moss please. >> no comments at this time. >> commissioner summer. >> thank you forthis important work, no comments .>> once again, mister ford. thankyou . for coming here today and bringing the update. i'm looking to you and i hope that there's no more than one person in dvi . it's a really tragic situation the city is going through right now .so with that i think public comments. is it necessary?

>> if there are no other commissioner comments. is there any public comment on this item. >> know there is not. >> thank you very much for that presentation. >> thank you all very much. >> we will go on to item number seven, commissioner questions. in a, at this time commissioners made it staff for various documents, and procedures which are of the commission. >> commissioner just went down. >> i just wanted to make a quickcomment and highlight. i was able to stop by dvi yesterday . for a subcommittee and i can say that seeing the flow of

traffic and the difference counters and different departments and adjust the energy was very. it was a breath of fresh air. i do see that and i want to commend everybody there the departments of special management interim director christine the entire staff at all the deputy directors and staff. just doing a fantastic job. i know it's going to take some time but i definitely think we're headed in the right direction i want to applaud everybody and give yourself a pat on the back for all that hard work you're putting in. >> thank you vice chair cam. >> i had the pleasure of being here today at theoffice and i want to echo everything vice president can send . it was nice to see things moving and all the excellent hard work. so thank you.

i just want to have a simple question about in public comments somebody talk about bulletin was being changed. regarding the windows and i wa curious if that had gone through. what process have that bond through ? at a subcommittee level, just i'm kind of curious about that bulletin that was mentioned in public comment. i don't know the full context. i might form it off to neville here after a couple of seconds but it is the information she went to and through conversation with the fire department had some concerns about their operational needs in regards to dealing with one and two unit buildings. they asked that we had we suspend the documents until we have an opportunity to engage with them a little bit more in

regards to what it actually means from a life safety perspective. neville, this is where i will pass it off to you and thank you. >> you scott. >> the information sheet was retracted. at the request of the state fire marshal. as to the definition on requesting. this is specific information that relates to an area that's 25 feet away from the building. and it allows people to receive it and show things. while the department is fighting back fire.however, the emergency rescue window is required. so it requires somebody to come

and the department has determined if you're not able to get their equipment then they need to find someone else to do an outline. and in the absence of a passageway. [inaudible] it's 25 foot down and it doesn't meet the commission's needs. so the immediate reaction was to subtract that. we've had patience with them in the spots and ... [inaudible]

>> thank you from a tenant perspective , knowing the egress it was very important . and is the standard that they have to have a ladder? there's not a workaround like providing a fire escape or any other kind of means to i guess get to the ground? is this the issue we're talkin about? on thesecond story you have to have a window and you can get to the ground so either if you have a ladder there, is there a workaround for a fire escape ? >> that's certainly one of the things we need to discuss . and it's going to be a sign of going forward because when you have a straight passageway it's not something that we could ... [inaudible]

>> a little bit, my fault. >> so even a passageway of 20 feet we would not be able to turn the corner. ideally you're exactly right commissioner alexander-tut. wewould be looking at options . >> no further questions but i appreciate all theinformation and consideration . >> president: commissioner bito please . >> i wanted to echo commissioner tam about dbi. i had a meeting with them last week and with interim director or riordan. and with director gaspard and the discussion was it was good

to see the ground floor with a lot of activity so i echoed those sentiments from commissioner tam. i have one question though that i wanted to field to either ... i'll field it to interim directoror riordan . i was contacted by ai on this emergency unit. i don't mean to go into it right now but could you send the commission the bulletin so we could look at it or review it? i don't know that much about what the issues are so i'd like to understand that before i propose putting that on the agenda so could youprovide us that information ? >> that's absolutely commissioner, i'd be happy to do that. we will provide it to sonia and she can forward it tothe commission . >> if i have any questions i'll

field them to you. i don't want to deliberate rightnow because i'm not that informed about it if you could do that it would begreat . >> always available to answer any of the questions you might have . >> iq . >> iq, commissionermoss . >> ideal this time.>> president: i'm just back to the bulletin as well. in regards to ... just wanted to get through here. i can see a lot of problems here with this. i mean, from the builders space i'm just triggering them off here and i know the influence. as it stands right now if i put

an application intothe apartment and i on hold ? does this getresolved if you don't meet that criteria ? >> there was a date of us rescinding that so if we have these applications filed prior to that date you could still get it. not creating any new applications. under this rule. >> president: it's on hold right now. but it's not on hold, we will stillreview it . >> president: as you know, we're in a land lot. we're very unique and we are, we've always had a difficult journey in trying to build our landlocked town here. and so as itstands right now , if i don't meet that 25 foot rule, that project is not going

to look right. >> commissioner mccarthy i would hope we would have a resolution within the next month or so to engage. understanding how our current state of backlog i would hope that like i said that there's nothing that's going to put this project on hold. the impression will be resolved for the permit would be issued. but i understand what you're saying. yes, if we were rescinding this completely that would be our position going forward, this would be a problem. >> i understand this is a state law or is this by our own department right now?

>> with a clarification of position by our own fire department from the state, the state fire marshal came backand said yes . we need to get our equipment back there and equipment being the 20 foot ladder. by nature that alone they determined that the state fire marshal was saying we needed to get a passageway. >> i've been around this one-size-fits-all when it comes to san francisco has caused a lot of kind of concern in that arena. i just want to give you a heads up here because if somebody's beenaround this , we've been through a few field days right now. some of the fixes are still no

better. sprinkling a building for example . i'll tell you right now what that couldturn into . that goes down a whole other ... and that's been a problem to where if you're a small builder or a small home it turns into a complete pressure issuewhich is a department issue and so on. and still ends up not a buildable project .i'm really concerned about this so i just wonder if you have reached out to stakeholders about this and got their input because you're going to need to be well equipped here when sitting down andtrying to figure this out because i know there will be a lot of concerns from the building community on this . i'm actually of the mindset they're not aware of this right now. and there's people out there going into contracts and buying homes and buying new properties and new builds and their

closing on these deals and they're not aware of this even though they believe they understand the code so i'm a little bit concerned about this right now . >> as you can imagine this has caused enough of a concern that we have been approached manyfold as well as even some of the stakeholders of the president of aia has cost on this issue. so it is a hot button issue. >> i totally understand the constraints. the housing stock here and i believe the fired apartment does too. it's just finding that solutio . >> please keep me informed of that. and if there's any stakeholder meetings they put together i'm

glad to help out there. i'd like to be able to, i know we have a online database of outreach to the development world when we want to get new information so i think they should be outraged on our side and let themknow this is out there. so that everybody can get involved here . it's going to be quite a lot of work to do here on this. >> my responses being whatever the fire department jointly decides with dvi will be then put out to the community. for their essentially review. >> welcome to san francisco. >> did you have another commen ? >> i was going to add to the president of our commission is

it appropriate for this to go toone of our subcommittees ? or to be heard in arena where there is a public comment. i think the tenantcommunity is going to be just as concerned that the developer . whether or not this matters at all i think that a more permanent solution versus just being able to get your ladders in the case of emergency would probably be something that people might be aligned on and i don't know what kind of latitude we have given state law or state interpretation but i think there are complementary concerns for the different committees and i'm wondering if the subcommittee that could review this and give advice to work there's a process, i'm still learning the subcommittee.

>>. >> president: what i found is the department and fired apartment get together, letthem figure out what are the options . here's where the pushback is going, and then see how they do and then come up with what they suggest and then at that point i think we definitely could bring it to the commission and wecould talk it through . at commission level and then that would be an opportunity for us or the department association because your point and forgive me if i didn't address that that is going to be existing staff and so on. and i do know, i don't want to get ahead of myself. i know that's where they're going to go with popular solutions and those solutions alone areno better than what they're suggesting in the first place . i don't want to get to a head

of myself but to your point i think it's across the boardwith commissioner alexander-tut year . >> i had similar experience there's also a lot of stuff . >> a lot of stuff. but when i have learned is the state marshal is the one who can make the decision here for us which is a very high bar to meet . that's what he's there for. thank you. >> next agenda item is 7b. the committee may discuss any actions such as the date of a special meeting or determine items that can be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the building inspection commission and our next regular meeting will be december 15. is there any publiccomment on item seven a and the ?

>> there is one hand raised. color, you are unneeded. >> there have been three suicides in less than five years among about 30 field inspectors under inspector or reardon's direction. and he claimed that his friend and green was his friend. i would like a response from the director or reardon. >> any other public comment.

>> you are mutedand this . >> we will go on to the next agendaitem . >> i have one question for secretary. just on the bulletin that we were talking about and i'm not prepared to put it on the agenda as of yet because i'm still trying to understand my side of it. the other question to director or reardon about this and deputy director herrera is that and i apologize that i haven't gotten up to speed on this but are there alternate methods that the fire department or dvi is working through the fire on this. >> not to interrupt you

commissioner bito. we need to agenda eyes this item because i did reach out to the city attorneyand we can't just continue thisdiscussion without it being an agenda item . >> sorry about that . >> president: next item. >> the next item will be eight, discussion regarding dbi's complaints process which is continued from the october 20, 2021 meeting . >> i can share my screen. >> just one moment. >> afternoon president mccarthy.this is the

complaint page we developed and listed online last month. this is also the collaboration with housing originally that proposed the idea of aggregating our complete information tied for customers that could make a complaint. the feedback we heard was that because there are different types of complaints that you can make that information was when spread across the website so it would be fit for the public if we aggregated it on the next page . i'm going to navigate to one of the next pages i'm here on the homepage of our website , there's a section there to file a complaint. you can also find it if you try to file a complaint into the search field on our website. and it takes into this new page that we created about the complaint process dvi. it starts with filing a complaint about a building so that could be about the residentialmaintenance issues . some type of hazard, electrical

or plumbing. or to a report of vacant or abandonedbuildings . and then you scroll down and it gives you information on howto file a complaint about a property or construction project . this is your neighbor doing construction work and you look it up and you see they don't have a permit this is how you would be able to file a complaint about that . if you wanted to file a complaint or give feedback about dbi such as you need something translated, we didn't provide language assistance for maybe someone was unhappy with them customer service they received they could get information about how to report that to maybe their supervisor . then there's a section here about giving feedback about dvi.this is whistleblower

complaints. how to file a whistleblower complaint with the comptroller's office and that's for the sum inefficient government practice for some improper activities. so this puts everything in one page and also up to the public navigates to the correct spaces to file the complaint.and with that stopped sharing my screen and answer any questions you may have. >> thank you vice chair. >> i like the landing page. maybe the option of a landing page andfrom there having a different clicking the link to what you need . this is live right now? >> it was live mid-october.

>> president: commissioner alexander. >> i'm thankful and i think the pages easy to use. it's easy to find things. i happen to be talking to one of our community partners who mentioned something. they haven't seen it in there like everything is here.it's right here. and it's really nice. you do have a really unwieldy webpage and it's nice to have it all laid out and in language that you know, every day language, not just our language. i think it helps our department moreaccessible and that's one of the goals i know we all share . so yes i think it'sfabulous and thank you for your work .>> president: next commissioner.

commissioner alexander-tut or commissioner bito please. >> i wanted to commend deputy director christine gaspard on the website and to commissioner alexander-tut. that's impressive that everything rolls on one page. it's clear so job. >> want an everyone, it's a great website. i'm wondering if i could ask the question what is there if any planto kind of get the word out that it exists . and not just to developers.to the general public and i know you can't get everybody but the building does planning department on some type of pdr or informational campaign to let people know about it.

becauseit's right and i think more people use it the better . >> we have a mailing list of who signed up of a few thousand people so we do plan to provid that information . >>. >> president: commissioner sommer. >> president: thank you director, top marks for your time and i think this team can give an awful lot so one down. a lot more to go. >> any public comment on item 8? >> there is one hand raised.

>> you should have the host duties now. >> hello color,go ahead . >> i wanted to commend the commission on taking the time toimprove the webpage . i guess i would ask the commission to consider spending a little more time to think about accessibility particularly on the language i . i know this commission focuses a lot and rightfully so on construction and new projects . and renovations. but i think part of the commission's responsibility and enforcing the life and building codes, life safety and building codes is also to provide accessibility to tenants to

report unsafe conditions in their buildings. and i think we all know very well that those tenants tend to be non-english speakers and rightnow they really don't have a way to access these resources . if they can't connectto a nonprofit organization . and i'd say working at the tenderloin housing clinic which is what i do right now as part of the code enforcement outreach program, a lot of these tenants are very empowered to speak up for themselves they really have no way to access dbi right now so i guess i would askus to think about the next steps . and just maybe adding on to omission or mosses!how is the commission going to spread the word that these improvements havehappened what are some

improvementsthat you could continue to do to make accessibility a priority for all of our residents . thank you . >> we are in the process of migrating to sfgov tv and all the pages have been translated so i believe that there's also an effort of the undertaking with a permit center to provide access to even more languages but that in the earlystages so i don't have any additional information . >> president: if there's no more comments on this.

>> our next itemis item 9 regarding client services subcommittee . and commissioner, do you have any questions. >> i like to provide a brief update. i have one question of city attorney rob kaplan. are we allowed to talk about teachers and the items on this commission as part of our recommendations to the pit. >> rob kaplan, not tryingto understand the future recommendations . as an update on the subcommittee. >> you can report back and say you're considering future items for the bid. we don't haveto vote on putting those on the agenda. it's not action item but you can provide the information update . >> wasn't too much to discuss because we had to deal with a

lot of formal measures about starting a new subcommittee but i think one of the things that we all agreed on for the end of that meeting was to focus substantially on one or two agendaitems . i think looking forward to getting sort of a baseline on the next agenda of focusing on turnaround times and checking something, i think were going to spend particular focus on self i think going forward going to bea big effort . so that's the summary for this compliance of the subcommittee brief. >> if there's no commissioner comments. see non-can we go to public comment.

>> next item is item 10, updates on the inspection program . >> i believe you are up again. >> good afternoon. can you hear me okay? >> we can hear you. >> caller: and let's see, andi going to be sharing my screen ? >> i can give you screen sharingduties .

are you able to see that clearly? >> we can see it, that's better. it's enlarged now. >> soul i'm here to just give you a quick update on the fagade improvement program. it is just one of the many programs that dvi administers. as you can see on the screen the accessible business of san francisco program legalization of legalization program are administered by our services section within our permit services division. the program was established in

2016 under the leadership of ed lee and the program was designed with extensive input from community and design professionals and our community as well which is part of the departments earthquake safety program. it aims to ensure san francisco property owners will maintain the exterior of their buildings and it relates to buildings that are older than 1998. and our five storiesare more . as of today this equips about 1450 buildings and out boundaries. the program requires the inspection of the building fagades by a california

licensing architect and that individual then prepares a report for submission and review by the department of building inspection . once we review that we make adjustments as necessary and then charge fees associated withthat review . that makes the building good for the next 10 years. this next slide shows how the program is divided into vintages of buildings. the first vintage is prior to 1910 which has a deadline of december 1 of this year. and then subsequent years as you can see have advantageous buildings. although we had anything after

1970 through 1998. there are exceptions to the program. as you can see here buildings of a historic nature, also buildings after 1997 still need to conduct a fagade inspection 30 yearsafter the building is approved . any buildings that received a comprehensive fagade inspection report are also used essentially thenext 10 years . so this outlines the process like isaid earlier on . the buildingessentially goes to our website . and hires a design professional

to conduct thatfagade inspection .that report is thensubmitted to the department . for review. review and comment like i stated earlier would charge fees and for that service and then essentially improve the report. and clear the building for the next 10 years so the cycle is at a 10 year fagade. this shows a website that has been dedicated to thisprogram . so building owners, building operators can input its website, look at the deadlines of each and basically find out information aboutthe program . there is information that we

mail to building owners. just to inform them of the program and requirements. and typically we send out a fair amount of mail within the year for that building to inform them toget compliance by the compliance date . i know the following year we send out 10 notices through the year. i know this time around it's only throughtwo mailings . we continue that effort as we get past the deadline with that i'll turn it over to you.

>>. >> president: any comments from our fellow commissioners on this. >> you have a comment professor mccarthy? >> know, wondering if that program is still in place and alive and well. one of the other programs particularly forthe downtown area .it keeps our city looking, gives property owners who have older buildings the opportunity to meet the style and i appreciate your update. thank you very much is very positive.

>> any public comment on this item. >> there is no public comment. >> will this be paid currently translated and available in a variety of different languages? >> i will ask michelle of my staff . >> i believe it it's in a sfgov tv site would be available in thefour languages which is the protocol for their websites . >> i know that answer, it is. i've seen the list before.

it's a very good program. >> next item is item 11, directorsreport. update on dbi finances . >> good afternoon commissioners, deputy director department for department of building inspection and before you is the october 2021 financial report following the pattern that we seem for the past four months of the fiscal year. ourrevenues are continuing to increase. where 17 million now . about 2 million more than last year in addition we are seeing increases in the number of issue permits as well as the valuation. on expenditure side we're expending about the same rate as we work the last fiscal year. in the report you'll see

actions but those protections are at budget. wenormally keep it at budget because there's so few data really make productions so start looking at by month six trying to make some projections from there. i'm happy to answer any questions . thankyou. >> thank you.the next item is 11 b, update on recent enacted state or local legislation . >> could afternoon commissioners just a couple of items for you . we were at supervisor peskin's update for the morning tower. this was submitted to dbo november 4 and following calls with the chair there was a follow-up meeting and supervisor ronen searing requesting an update on the command line control on november8 . as president mccarthy mentioned earlier we are in the process of implementing the ordinance and we are having our first individual to the expanded

compliance control list. finally the ordinance extending the compliance deadline program was signed by mayor reed last friday and the approved language as you recall included the commission's recommendations. any questions? >> thank you. next item is 11 c, updates on majorprojects . >> good afternoon president mccarthy and members of the building inspection commission. i'm here to provide you with an update related to our major projects. its construction that exceeds $5 million and four permits that were filed, issued and completed, the difference from september to october 2021 was almost negligible. there was a .05 percent decrease in construction valuation inoctober over

september . and there was a decrease of one percent in the units that have had permitsfiled, issued or completed . in october or september so obviously i'm available for questions should you have any. >>. >> president: interim director >> next item is 11 d, update on code enforcement . >> joe duffy, deputy director of inspection services and i'd like to give you some numbers from our code enforcement and our dbi inspection services for the month of october. building inspection division 4872 inspections. the aaa inspection was 2727. building inspection division 200,716 so that around the consistent number of 10,000. so for inspection services the

inspections division performed 667 inspections and our code enforcement infections were 133 with 34 cases set for a directors hearing. and i'mavailable for any questions . whew. >> president: thank you mister duffy. okay. >> any public comment on the agenda items 11 athrough b . >> there are none. >> our next item is item 12, review and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of october 20 2021. i have one correction to read into the record. this is for item 7, the wording

of seven a. it will say commissioner bito said she and commissioner summer have relationships in the past and she wanted to be transparent that the company may have projects together. and we may have offices in various locations and media where if our companies are involved in the project. so i just wanted to add that point of clarification. so go ahead. >> we may not know or may not be aware given the multiple locations that would work in. >> is there a motion to approve the minutes with the requested

corrections by commissioner bito. >> there is amotion to approve and a second . is there any public comment? >> in that case are all commissionersin favor. opposed . thank you, the minutes are approved. the next item then is 13, adjournment . >> second. >> before we go i want to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving . hoping we're all healthy and hoping it's been a good direction here. happy thanksgiving and i wish everybody that's . >> happy thanksgiving commissioners . >>thank you commissioner, that was very good .

>> president: do you have anything to say? >> i like to wish everyone a happy holiday to. i have a, two important updates as a matter of fact. you may have read in this morning's chronicle the story about bernie rodriguez sentence. this represents the next step in bringing santos to justice. i have not seen the indictment but i would expect the criminal offenses are similar to the complaint the us attorney filed in august. this is the same conduct by santos and kern that we pursued with the city attorney over the past year. i placed kern on administrative leave before he was charged and the subsequently as you know he resigned from his position at

dvi. we will obviously continue to support these criminal investigations and look forward to seeing this disturbing chapter come to a close. another item i wanted to bring you president and commissioners up to speed with his and as you know one of my top priorities is to help dvi staff provide accurate ethical and courteous service to all of our customers. and making sure staff know what to do if they see or ask to do something that's not right. it's a simple tenet of our forearms initiatives. for me that starts with ensuring that our entire team feels safe, supported and have the tools to do the right thing.so that to that end last week we introduced an interim internal internet tool that allows them to honestly

report unethical conductby colleagues, vendors or management . this could be an appropriate request from the permit applicant or contractor. colleagues behavior. they think is right for direction from a supervisor that simply violates the code of professional conduct. staff can go to this internal internet site and file anonymously all reports will be investigated. issues related to work or online permitting, review, inspections, recordkeeping and administration will be routed directly to the director's office and then the issues related to personnel matters will go to our hr manager. and as you know employees also

are made aware of the fact that they can file a whistleblower complaint with the controller's office. and you know, challenging certain circumstances may be inevitable. it's just the way that it is. but my responsibility is to make sure that our communities has the tools to handle these situations as they arise and over the course of what it is that we do in our work. i believe the reporting tool i another important part of that effort . and we do appreciate your ongoing support or our reforms initiative and obviously we will continue to update you with our progress and initially i want to say that i really listen very closely to the presentation from the passing forward of the ethics commission today. we will be reaching out because i think there are things we can

do better and make improvements upon a lot of the things which we always have inplace but we can always do business better . so just wanted to bring you up to speed on those two items. thanks for the time president andcommissioners and you have a nice thanksgiving . >> president: thanksgiving.