>> i would like to remind everyone to please mute yourself if not speaking. in person silent your cell phones. first item is roll call. president bito. >> here. >> commissioner eppler. >> here. >> commissioner alexander toot. >> here. >> commissioner summer. >> commissioner newman is expected. we have a quorum. next is land acknowledgenent. >> the building inspections commission acknowledges we are on the homeland of the ramaytush ohlone. they have never forgotten their

responsibilities as caretakers of this place as well as for all people residing in the traditional territory. as guests we benefit from living and working on the traditional homeland. we wish to pay respects by acknowledging the ancestors and elders and affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. thank you. >> next item is 2. finding to allow teleconferenced meetings under california gold section 53493e. the commission will discuss and possibly adopt a resolution setting forth findings required under bill 361 to allow the meetings or attend meetings when necessarily remotely according to the modified brown act teleconferencing set forth in ab361.

>> motion. so moved. >> second. >> second. all commissioners in favor. >> yes. >> thank you. that motion carries. i want to announce that this meeting is being held in person and via video and teleconferencing. for members of the public who are attending via web ex, the call-in number is 415-655-0001. pack sesscode 24946941052. to raise your hand for public comment on a specific item press star 3 when prompted by the moderator. next item is president's opening remarks. >> good morning. i just want to say a few words.

i am thrilled to be here and excited to serve in a new capacity. two to three years ago i had no idea i would be sitting here in city hall as president of the commission. thank you for your trust and confidence. when people ask why i wanted to be part of this institution, my response is that it is because of people like you who care about the cities in which they live and want to make the community a better place for today and the future. as president, one of my highest priorities will be to help the department become more efficient. i believe the processes that produce efficiency and goals and direction and metrics ongoing training and accountability will help address the root causes of the other issues we have worked on at the commission. the benefits are substantial. stronger operations, better moral, increased transparency and customer service.

providing the best possible service to san francisco and our customers. i am honored to work alongside my fellow commissioners and appreciate the ways they give back to san francisco including serving on this commission. we have much work to do in partnership with the leadership at d.b.i. and employees who continue to serve the city with optimism and open mind to what the future can bring. thank you again. unless there is public comment, we can move to the next item. i think we want to discuss breaks when you want to prompt me, sonya. >> yes. there will be periodic recesses or breaks during the meeting. five minute breaks so people can grab a sip of water or something. >> we will announce those when we feel like it is appropriate. the one last item i wanted to

welcome bia nca newman. we will welcome here when she comes. >> any public comment be on president's remarks? >> i forgot to announce that there is public comment for members of the public in person and via web ex. we will take public comment from members in person first and then the comments by the members on web ex. our next item is item 4.

director's report. 4a director's update. >> good morning. i would like to start with an operational update relating to covid. our staff are back in the office as of march seventh. i think as you know the masking requirement will no longer be in place this friday, march 18th. i would like to give a shout out to our staff who came into the office, our in person staff during the past two and a half months. they never said no. they always came in and did their work. my hat is off to them. thank you.

i am -- i have an update on over-the-counter permitting. we released data this week showing that we are now issuing 60% over-the-counter permits within two days as opposed to february of last year. that is a 30% improvement. again, that is thanks to our staff and the staff at the center. i am happy to report that we will keep pushing to making that number even better. along with that, on customer service, the permit center, our partners at the second floor 49 south van ness opened a small business counter. the office of small business is relocating to 49 south van ness. they should be taking up

residence within a few days. it is also meaningful to note that the permit center has opened a print center at the building. people can get their documents processed at the print center. i think that is meaningful. again, in regards to small business, we are seeking every way possible to help these small businesses to get up and running. it is a fairly daunting thing for a small business operator who probably hasn't been through the permitting process before to navigate all of these different departments. it is good to have a counter there for small business. along with that even when you get to the end of the permitting process and an inspector is

doing the inspection sometimes there can be challenges. i understand how stressful it is at the end of a project to make sure you have your ducks in a row and everything lined up and engineering reports in place. sometimes these small business operators don't know about these things. we are talking about assigning an ambassador from our inspection group to help with these inspections and get people over the finish line. [ inaudible ]

>> our revenues $37 million for the eight months of this fiscal year july through february. basically that is due to steady increase in plan checking, build revenues, electrical and plumbing permits. we continue to do better than budget. we are lower than the pre-pandemic level. we are watching revenues very closely. expenditures. $48.2 million that is for february 22 compared to

$45 million last year that is due to increase in salaries as well as work order billings. we expect new revisions next month. city-wide we normally do a little more of the projections of the nine months report particularly for the expenditures. we will try to have better ex savings $2.2 million. we expect more. we normally got savings and services through the work orders. now we project the budget. we don't have enough in billing. by march we hope to have enough in billing. i am happy to answer any questions. update on budget. we submitted the budget in february. next month i will have details where we are going with the

budget. one of the things we discussed particularly on the work orders to get that down. we reduced the work orders over $3 million since the last time you seen it and we will work on other reductions. thank you. >> next item. 4d. update on proposed or resently enacted state or local legislators. >> jeff buckley with update on the local and state ordinance changes. first i will start with items that were hearings. recently the hearing on the city's making the city fleet move to all electric. it was scheduled for march 3rd. that was moved to may 5th.

that is a substantive change since last we spoke. in addition the hearing was called by supervisor mar to get an update on the building operation component of the 2022 climate action plan. while the department of the environment is the primary department responding to them, d.b.i. will assist in the presentation of materials with that hearing item. also, on current legislation. we tentatively have on april 20th at the building inspection commission supervisor peskin's office coming to present on the ordinance amending the san francisco fire code to require automatic sprinkler systems in existing high rise buildings. as you may recall this was introduced on january 11th. we are working with the supervisor's office to try to get them before you. in addition to that the supervisor last week supervisor peskin introduced a change to

the building code. that is making permanent what was previously an emergency ordinance known as shelter in peace ordinance to amend the building codes to prohibit construction projects in buildings with any residential units. when there is a suspension of service of water or utilities to residential tenants. this is an item that was introduced and it is signed under the 30-day rule. it will be heard at land use and transportation committee. because it is a building code change, it will be heard at the building inspection commission at a date in the future. last item. the gao, government audit and oversight committee tomorrow, the settlement of the lawsuit with depnis richards, rachel

swan in the city will be heard at that date. if you have any questions, i will be happy to answer them. >> do fellow commissioners have questions? thank you. >> next item. 4e. update on code enforcement. >> good morning. this is an update on the code enforcement and mission activity for the month of february. d.b.i. conducted 9654 inspections in the month of february. of those 4,460 were building inspections. 200-0710 electrical and 200-0484 -- 2484 plumbing. housing inspection team we

conducted 602 housing inspections in the month of february. we responded to 322 complaints. 33 cases were sent for director's hearing and for code enforcement. we sent 52 cases to director's hearing. 21 orders abatement issued. we conducted 282 code enforcement inspections. that is my code enforcement update. if you have any questions, i am available. >> thank you for the update. in previous hearings with regards to chief in with the housing inspections with the sro an update on that. how everything is going with covid.

is that something for next week? >> we can work on preparing a presentation for the commission on that. >> thank you. >> through the chair. may i ask a question? >> absolutely. >> this is a question for mr. buckley. i am not quite sure who the question is geared. i want to try for you, mr. director. if you tell me that somebody else in the city is for this information. i am curious about the settlement. i read not all of the interviews but it is quite a lot there. from a commission perspective to understand what happened. are there internal processes

that, things that went wrong? i think there are -- i am looking to see the settlement is one thing. what can we learn at the department? what happened? why are we settling for the large amount when the accusation is we retaliated by somebody critical against the department by pulling the permit. i am looking for reflection on lessons learned in the department and honest conversation about checks and balances on these issues. as a future i team if there are closed item issues, i am flexible but i think there is

some reflection on the commission. >> thank you, commissioner. regarding the potential settlement, i have to deer to dr to the city attorney on that. regarding what we are doing. we presented in relation to our additional over sight and reforms. he will be providing an update on some of that today. maybe we can listen to what he has to say. >> city attorney. i agree. i think there is a difference between that discussion and the lessons learned potentially from the litigation. it may or may not have closed session requirements. i can look into that matter.

>> thank you. >> if there are no further commissioner comments. is there any public comment for 4a through e? >> good morning. i am jerry dradler. i also have been following the litigation with regard to dennis richards. i agree with the city attorney. we can't look at the legal aspects of it. i think what we are talking about abuse of power. i think it is important to look at the documents, understand what happened, what abuses may or may not have happened. specifically what has been done to prevent further abuses. i think it knocks down the credibility of the d.b.i.

remains in question. thank you. >> any additional public comment? seeing none, the next item is item 5. general public comment. >> madam secretary. one question for item 4b quickly. director reardon, just a quick question. i looked is this a compiled list of the major projects in process right now at d.b.i.? >> this is a list of all projects in excess of $5 million in value filed, issued or have been completed in the month of february. >> thank you. sorry about that, madam secretary. >> general public comment. item 5. any public comment within the commission's jurisdiction not

part of this agenda? >> i am mary de bay,ence dent of san francisco representing clay angry action san francisco policy action team. in the interest of time. i know i have three minutes that is ticking down here. we sent a letter in advance we are here to represent that. we are aware it is budget season currently. we wanted to make you aware the san francisco commission on the environment made a recommendation to the city that they allocate 1% of the total city budget toward climate equity across all departments. we are here to urge the department the building inspection department to make an ask around that. we believe you are in a position, particularly around

building department to make a contribution toward the city climate action plan. i have limited time here. i am here with a colleague going to provide more detailed recommendations. some examples. thank you. >> good morning, directors, commissioners. the climate change is a big deal and complicated. it is going to take a long time. traditionally in san francisco departments have followed strategies relatively siloed. we have tremendous interactions with building departmentalization. inspection has an important role

in this. one example which is the electrical panel in my house and how that plays in. i have an older house. it has a 90-amp panel. when we have the remodel done in 2010, the electrician managed to fit all of the plugs and required things in that 90 amps. i have looked at my bill. the maximum draw is 12 amps. yet if i want to put in a heat pump system for hot water and for heating and air-conditioning, i don't have the legal am per age on that panel. my actual demand putting in let's call it 30 amps for a heat

pump for heating and air-conditioning and heat pump for water would go from 12 amps to 47 amps. this is an area where codes and policies from the past don't reflect the reality of the demands today. similarly, what the panel requirement does is set supply requirement on the electrical grid. if the electrical grid is oversized that wastes money and increases costs. we have new technologies like smart panels to share am per age. when i turn on my induction stove which is a 30-amp circuit. it turns off power to heat pumps. i don't need 60 amps for both. i need 30 plus the smart panel. how does that fit into play?

what we are asking recognizing this is going to be work. is that use this year's to plan aggressively on the budget for next year on all of the things that need to happen. i would just site the caps program. out standing example of public outreach to engage the broader community inning what the needs are. thank you. >> paul warner. >> any additional public comment? >> good morning. i am jerry drater. the election of big officers at the february 16, 2022 meeting was improper. the meeting video you can see

the former president mccarthy was impaired. it was attributed to his son. after many procedural mistakes he asked ms. harris to take over administration of the election of officers. he began by asking for nominations for president and vice president. then proceeded to nominate ms. bito before entertaining officer nominations from other commissioners. this is wrong. this violates section 203 of the building code. it also violates the normal procedures where the president participates after the commissioners provide input. future bic elections should

require voting for all nominees for president and vice president at the same time. nominations in the order received makes the election process vulnerable to abuse. thank you. >> any further public comment. >> i have to do a disclosure. i was contacted by a member of the climate reality project and asked to talk about policy. i said come to bic. i am thrilled that members of the climate reality project came to the discussion.

thank you. >> next item is 6. discussion and possible action to appoint commissioners to serve on the nominations subcommittee. continued from the february 16, 2022 regular meeting. current members are commissioners. >> we are continuing that conversation. >> we will continue that. go ahead. if the current members want to continue to serve you can. if anyone else would like to put their name in the hat they can. >> at the last meeting i stated i am on the nominations committee. i would do it because of the other obligations.

vice president. >> i would be honored to continue to serve. >> vacancies? >> i think we also proposed for discussion that other commissioners that might be good to serve on it because the time obligation isn't a really big burden over the course of the year would be commissioner summer and perhaps commissioner newman. some people are open more subcommittee, you know, appointments. >> if there are commissioners that would like to put their name forward that would be good. i did mention to commissioner newman in the conversation that this may be a good committee for her. we can't elect her if she is not

here. >> exactly. >> any other commissioner that might be willing? this is different than web ex. >> i would be willing and pleased to join the subcommittee if that would be helpful. >> thank you. commissioner. >> i am happy serving in that role. i will focus on the litigation subcommittee and my role as vice president. thank you. >> if you could remember to speak closer to the microphone. thank you. currently there is a motion for commissioner tamand summer to

serve on the nomination subcommittee. is there an official motion and second. >> i make a motion. >> second. >> there is a motion by president bito and second with alexander-tut. >> roll call vote on that motion. president bito. >> yes. >> vice president tam. >> yes. >> commissioner alexander tut. >> yes. >> commissioner eppler. >> yes. >> commissioner summer. >> yes. >> that carries unanimously. next item is item 7. i am sorry. any public comment on that motion for the nominations? no public comment. item 7. discussion and possible action to appoint commissioners to

serve on the client services subcommittee. >> i believe commissioner newman might be here. >> welcome, commissioner newman. we have just completed the item on the nomination subcommittee. that is the one we briefly had a conversation is that something you are interested in serving on? >> not at this time. >> okay. we will revisit that next time. we have two members for now. item 7 is discussion and possible action to appoint commissioners to serve on the client services subcommittee. the current members are commissioners bito and tam.

>> i think we discussed last week. i continue to be interested in that subcommittee. given that i was part of spearheading that. if that is okay with the rest of my fellow commissioners that is something i would like to continue serving on. >> i would like to serve on this committee. we have a good start. i would like to make a difference there. >> thank you. commissioner alexander-tut. >> my understanding is this committee is that it was started in order to try to create efficiencies which was in the department client services. it would come back and would do

homework to bic for reporting. respectfully i do think that it should be beyond just the president and vice president of the commission. i mean that not because of the people sitting in those positions but because of the position. you know, we have a lot of diversity on this commission. our subcommittee should reflect that. i would put that forward for consideration. >> other commissioners are welcome to join. that is the whole purpose. there were three members previously. if you would like to join or another commissioner would like to join, we would welcome that. >> we are not allowed to have four people at the meetings. >> no only two. we need one more person.

>> correct. my understanding once it is a full committee none of us can attend the subcommittee to participate. that would be a quorum of bic. the subcommittee can only meet with subcommittee then come back to report because otherwise it would trigger a brown act violation which we are not going to do. i could put names forward. >> if someone would like to serve, that would be great if they would like to put their name forward. >> client services meets once a month fourth thursday at 4:00 p.m.

it lasts one hour. it is a time commitment if the commissioners were considering that. >> we welcome you commissioner alexander. >> thank you. we would like a motion for commissioners bito and tamand al exander-tut to serve on this committee. >> motion. >> second. >> public comment on the motion? i will do a roll call vote. >> president bito. >> yes. >> vice president pam. >> yes. >> commissioner alexander-tut. >> yes. >> commissioner overler. >> yes. >> commissioner newman.

>> yes. >> commissioner summer. >> yes. >> that carries unanimously. congratulations. next item. item 8. discussion and possible action to approve and swear in a member of the code advisory committee. member at-large seat. nominations sub committee recommends brian caruso for the street. term to expire august 10, 2025. commissioners, bito and tamwould you like to give a brief update. >> question to the city attorney on the recommendation for the nomination for brian. my firm is working with them. if i need to requeues my another -- recuse myself. i will disclose that again.

>> deputy city attorney. just nomination for a subcommittee would be to disclose in the future if there is anything about the company relationship to require or may lead to appearance of impropriety you would disclose or recuse. for this item today of appointing to the subcommittee is not something you need to recuse from. >> part of the disclosure i have never met brine or worked with him. i can't hear you entirely. >> i do not think you need to recuse yourself. >> do you want me to serve? why don't you present your recommendation. >> thank you, madam chair. i made the recommendation to move brian forward.

president bito agreed. i would like to highlight his experience in green efficiency and experience in container building homes, container style of building homes. that kind of stood out to me and really the resume speaks for itself. >> that is what it was for me. >> hit housing experience was part of the resume that we particularly highlighted. i also thought that his experience in construction and development would addaiversity to the code advisory commission. i try to it is on that every month when they do host that.

i think his representation from the building industry would be a good addition to that committee. >> thank you, commissioners for that update. any commissioner comments? >> i have a question. i know i have been asking for the update on the race equity. i did go into the board our commission commitments it says that which we haven't be done. select current board and commission demographic data and include in the annual report and use it in recruitment efforts. we talked about the subcommittees as well. i wonder if that was taken into consideration during the process? >> if i may speak. the last subcommittee we had

regarding accepting resumes we extended to as long as we thought was acceptable. i can agree with commissioner moss at the time. the longer we apply that submission period the more applications we will get. understanding a lot of subcommittees with the applicants you can get from professional fields that would really serve the committees well. the fact we received two for the cac. we didn't receive any from the board of examiners. we had an application admission of people who wanted to submit their ces or interests for about two or three months. i forget how long it was. it was an extended time if you recall. >> it was extended to three months. >> 90 days.

>> i don't think anybody disagrees with your initiative or priorities in that, but the fact of the matter is we have -- this is trying to encourage people in the professional field to serve in the committees. we don't have a lot of people available to do that. >> thank you for your comments. respectfully, wendy is a latino. i don't know anybody else's ethnicity. she is a very public person in san francisco. you can see that from her resume. i don't know the demographics of all of our committees, but an at-large seat does give us flexibility to look at somebody with no engineers license but has hands on experience within

the construction field. to me i felt like specifically for an at-large seat that is something we should be considering both per her breadth of experience within the local construction field as well as making sure that our committees do reflect san francisco. >> thank you. we did look at the roster. we looked at the roster of the cac. the number much engineers, people with design background. there were not many -- not any serving or representing the development community. maybe one or two that served construction. this actually does addaiversity to -- add the diversity to the group and resonate and inform deliberations and discussions.

would you like to add anything to that, vice president tam? >> no, thank you. >> any other commissioner comments? if there aren't any, if someone would like to entertain a motion to accept the nomination subcommittee recommendation. >> i would make the motion to move the nominee forward. >> second. >> i will do a roll call vote on this motion. is there public comment on this motion? seeing none. roll call vote. president bito. >> yes. >> vice president tam. >> yes. >> commissioner alexander-tut. >> no. >> commissioner eppler. >> yes.

>> commissioner newman. >> yes. >> commissioner summer. >> yes. >> that motion carries 5-1. thank you. congratulations to mr. caruso. if you are present could you come to the podium, please. >> we will do your oath of office. repeat after me. i, brian caruso, do solemnly swear or affirm that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against

all enemies foreign and domestic. i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california. that i take this obligation freely. without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion. and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter and during such time as i hold the office of a member of the code advisory committee, member at-large seat, of the city and

county of san francisco. thank you. congratulations. >> thank you very much. thank you, commissioners. i look forward to serving. thank you. >> madam secretary may i say a few words. >> yes. >> congratulations, mr. caruso. i hope your nomination will encourage other people in the industry and profession to volunteer and to seek out public service to other committees because we know that this is a busy time for a lot of people in the industry. we appreciate your desire to serve on that committee. >> thank you for your support and thank you to the support of the construction community through this nomination process. i look forward to working with you all. >> thank you. >> next item 9. discussion and possible action to make recommendations

regarding current membership and reappointment to the access appeals commission with a term to expire november 1, 2025. >> members that are up for reappointment. commissioners brown and park. >> are they both here? >> commissioner brown is here. a brief summary and i can state what the motion will be. >> i believe these two positions are reappointments from my recollection. i think that the nomination committee obviously we would want to recommend reappointment of these two individuals and continue to serve. >> thank you. vice president would you like to say anything? >> thank you for the continued service and your desire to

continue to serve. >> thank you. also, due to the agenda today we won't be able to swear in the commissioners. however, i would like someone to do the motion to reappoint commissioners brown and park to the disability seat on access appeals commission and recommend they be sworn in. >> expiration date question. the terms expire in november is that the current term? >> terms expired november of last year. they are serving on hold over period. >> hold over period is a little over the hold? >> it is over the hold over period. >> i understand. i want to say i don't agree with the process. my plan is the commitment of the city and the bic itself. i take it very seriously.

i understand. thank you for clarifying. we are over the commitment. >> yes. these seats are important persons with disability. we didn't receive any new additional applicants. >> alice brown. nominations? ally brown and? >> walter parks. >> parks, yes. >> great guy. >> i would make a motion to reappoint alice brown and walter parks. >> second. >> and to recommend they be

sworn in. >> and to recommend they be sworn in. are we doing that today? >> we will do it following the meeting another day this week following the meeting. >> motion to swear in on a following day. >> that was seconded by commissioner tam. >> any public comment on that motion? i will do a roll call vote. >> president bito. >> yes. >> vice president tam. >> yes. >> commissioner tut. >> yes. >> commissioner eplearn. >> yes. >> commissioner newman. >> yes. >> commissioner summer. >> yes. >> that motion carries unanimously. commissioner brown would you like to come forward to say a few words?

>> good morning. i would like to thank every one of the commissioners, directors, president, vice president. i took the opportunity to come in person because we haven't been in person for three years now. when i looked at the commissioners i couldn't identify anyone. i thought, my god, everybody is new. nobody knows me and i don't know them. i would like to say "hello" and congratulations to all of you and thank you for having confidence in me to serve another two years. i appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. congratulations. >> thank you for your service. >> thank you.

>> next item is 10. discussion and possible action to allow bic subcommittees to meet remotely. the subcommittees include access appeals commission, board of examiners, code advisory committee and the bic subcommittee litigation, client services and nomination subcommittee. >> i would make a recommendation that we continue to meet remotely to encourage attendance and volunteerism for the committees. i am curious if fellow commissioners have an opinion on that. >> second. >> i know that i attended the code as virecommittee. there was discussion of people wants to return to in person.

i personally am flexible. >> that is the question. if we do support meeting remotely it doesn't preclude meeting in person. is that correct, city attorney? >> deputy city attorney. i believe you can require they meet in person. not a hybrid situation, but there is logistical issues of meeting space and that would be difficult to have both in person and remote. we need to choose to do in person, require it. individual commissioners or committee members can appear remotely but the physical building for the public to come to or continue to be completely remote. we have going to have a lack of meeting space for a while as all

of the major charter commissions go back to in person. for now it is prudent to allow the baseline remote meetings. once we have more space available you can require back to in-person meetings. >> if they meet remotely it is all remotely. if they meet in person they all meet in person. is that what i understand? it is not hybrid? >> the hybrid the only way to work if you require meetings to be in person and individual commissioners cannot meet for illness. it would allow any member to attend remotely for social distancing or isolation or illness. it wouldn't allow ability to choose if a commissioner wants to meet in person or remotely. you would have to have a basis for the meeting in person and

attend remotely. default would be in person if you were to vote and require that of all subcommittees. >> i am curious about the space issues. is that new? when things are under construction what is the status on that? we never had the room for all subcommittees. okay. >> the subcommittees have met in different rooms around the city. we can't confirm all rooms are available at this time or buildings that may have open access to the public. it is difficult logistically. >> to go back to in person for all of the subcommittees? i am curious? is there an option to continue to do remote? >> deputy city attorney. so many false starts on

everything going back. ideally when or if theirs return to normal stage, i think certainly the goal and these are emergency orders with the ability for some remote meetings. first in person meeting for bic because the order is altered for charter commissions to meet in person. if it is a reason they can't attend they can attend remotely. the default is in person. >> commissioner. >> i have two thoughts. we as subcommittees were not able to meet. i wonder if continuing to meet virtually will help quorum issue. maybe i am wrong it seems like

each subcommittee should decide we meet remotely or virtually. then we allow each sub commit to to make that decision on their own. i can imagine it is difficult for staff in may in person, in june virtual, july need a room. that seems very difficult logistically. we should advise them to make a decision and to keep that at least until the end of the calendar year. >> deputy city attorney. i don't think they can make that decision on their own. you can require them to meet in person or not. they would not be able to change that decision. it is up to the bic on this item if they have to meet in person in subcommittees. >> point of clarification.

this item would not preclude people from meeting in person. only provide the option for subcommittee to meet remotely? that is a standing meeting worry moat. >> the meeting would be remote. we wouldn't be have a place for the subcommittee in one room without the public there. this is the requirement. the meeting has to take place where the public can meet in person with the commissioners. that is the issue with logistics. if we had commissioners in a room only big enough for the commissioners there would be no room for the public to attend other than remotely. to be on fair footing and to allow the public in this same pace it would be all remotely offer default with limited

remote appearances by subcommittees. >> with respect to this we are in pandemic here. we respect people's time. meeting remotely for the subcommittees would be the way to go. i make a motion to move forward with that. >> second. >> thank you. this is a motion by president bito and second by al ex and der tut. public comment on this motion? seeing none. roll call vote. >> president bito. >> yes. >> vice president tam. >> yes. >> commissioner alexander-tut. >> yes. >> commissioner kepler. >> yes. >> commissioner newman. >> yes. >> commissioner summer. >> yes. >> that carries unanimously.

item 11. discussion and possible action to decide whether third-party presenters, parties or participants in any hearing or proceeding at that in-person meeting may appear remotely. >> this is not just the public. what do you mean third party presenters? >> deputy city attorney. i am not sure we often has as many. there are other charter commissions where applicant or person appearing before the commissioner board may need to present remotely to give that party ability to present or for instance this would allow if the director or staff had to make an item of presentation remotely while sitting in person this would allow that. it would allow public comment to

appear remotely. we are appearing in person. we haven't had that today. i don't think anyone appeared remotely for public comment. this would cover that as well. >> i would appeal to fellow commissioners to opine on this. >> i think affording the public and presenters the flexibility we are going to the subcommittees at this time since it is uncertain. in our fully remote meetings we have not had a mass abundance of public comment. we don't threaten of crowding out meetings with public comment remote. it is perfectly fair finding today. >> anyone else to appine? >> this is hand in hand with what we just did.

>> i would agree. is there a motion? is that your job, madam secretary? >> would you like to make the motion? >> i move we continue to allow third-party presenters to call in remotely and the general public as well. >> second. >> any public comment on this item. >> i am jerry dradler. this is a good idea. one of the things i have been frustrated with when you participate remotely you can't present materials. i think what is really important is that the people who are here and the people who are presenting remotely are at the same level. i think remote presenterring should be allowed to present

their materials. thank you. >> any additional public comment? there is a motion by commissioner and second. i will do a roll call vote on that motion. >> president bito. >> yes. >> vice president stam. >> yes. >> commissioner alexander-tut. >> yes. >> commissioner overler. >> yes. >> commissioner newman. >> yes. >> commissioner summer. >> yes. >> that carries unanimously. next is item 12. quarterly update on the d.b.i.'s reforms initiatives. >> good morning, commission. i am patrick canaan communications director for

department of building director. these are reforms from last year. it is reforms initiative to further public confidence in the department management and oversight and operations. we identified several initiatives to develop our staff and enhance transparency for the public. launched may last year and by the controller's office incorporated into our initiative. every department at d.b.i., director, administration and he inspections and permit services. we have a number completed. new senior inspector for code enforcement. increased services established district inspection activities. reminders to staff about the whistleblower program and new

online tool in our internet to allow staff to report nonly any behavior from colleagues or management that they find of concern. all of those comments will be investigated by hr or by management. standard aye preinspections for enhanced body compliant and complaint page how to report concerns. developed the process for reporting violators to state licensing board and conducted assessment training formis managers. information services team. the measures not quite complete. conducting additional staff training on customer service, management and racial equity. first was our inspections team.

building, electrical next. plumbing have done training. that is underway. we have expanded our mentorship programs in outreach with secure share for records management. we modernize the tracking system. recruit and hire a compliance cromoffice. we pad correction de tales to online records to increase transparency what staff is seeing. quality assure reviews for larger projects. electronic records cannot be edited when finalized. there are reforms we are looking at that are on the list. providing enhanced training to ensure work is in code compliance. expanding public outreach and posting notices of violation on the website.

next step to get compliance manager on board with compliance plan and manage in an intentional way by somebody dedicated to that role and staff training. we will work on enhanced public outreach. we will give you another updater on our initiatives in may. i am happy to answer any questions. thank you again for your time. >> i will open it up to my fellow commissioners for questions. >> i just want to say that i want to thank you and the team for working on this. this is a culture you are building now and transparency and it will set forth. it will build a proud department and transparent department. i applaud you and your team and the staff for welcoming that.

keep up the great work. >> thank you. >> to the chair. >> yes. curious. i would like more detail about the staff reporting tool and process that came out of that. larger innovation i feel these systems are per i less despite safeguards. tell us how that works when implementeds and how many reports you have had so far. >> i can. this is just to augment existing tool that the whistle browere protection of the -- whistleblower program of the city that is well establish. we want to give staff a tool to report minor things. i am not sure my manager made the correct decision. i would like somebody to look at it. we have divided into two areas. questions related to work to the

director's office. he reviews the questions related to work. i don't believe somebody did something code compliant. there is ethical behavior by the director's office to hr. we know they have a way to safely report concerns about their own managers and the managers of them so people feel they have the tool available given that was needed. we didn't want everything rise to that we want a way to report smaller things not appropriate for whistleblower and want it checked with somebody and want them to do it without going to to the manager directly. it is on the home page of the internet.

we work with the steep torn offs -- city attorney's office. we have no reports to date of this. we have created suggestion box a year ago. we did get excellent suggestions from staff. we have not had anybody report concerns so far. we will make sure they know it is available. >> it is a situation where too many reporting is bad but also nobody reporting is a bad thing. i look forward to see if people do avail themselves of this. >> thank you, commissioner. >> on the question of the tool and thank you for starting off. i have looked in the

whistleblower website. it is specific the kind of complaint you can submit. you have top name the person that you think did the improper action. sometimes that is known and sometimes not known. is there a way to enter a more general complaint within this system? or is it as specific as the whistleblower page? we make it as open as possible. we wanted to remove every barrier to prevent somebody from reporting. we can follow up with contact information. if you don't give us contact information we can't follow up. anybody that submits this gets an acknowledgment this is received by the system. there is an awareness if you don't want followed up for additional information you get a confirmation this is received.

we whether it is complaint from the public or internally we investigate everything. that was the conversation we had with human resources. it has not been a burden. we will continue to communicate. we want to tool used when people feel the need. [please stand by]

>> president bito: i don't think they should be published. may be some of them should be published. i agree and understand the protection of staff question. with the -- will the h.r. manager to look at the last five years of record or would the

director have that access to look at the last five years of records? will somebody will be able to look at those? >> the reason the computer doesn't keep it itself, then it becomes a public record. what we're advised, if it became a solid log produced by technology, that something that wouldn't be protected. even though it might be a personnel issue. that's what we were trying to balance. as to whether the h.r. director and say what happened over the last five years, they would off those receipts and the log what's come in. they are managing some sort of record. >> it does seem like the record should be kept somewhere at the controller office or city attorney's office, somewhere

externally. if there's turnover, it wouldn't be in that person's inbox. in your consideration, i would think about is a way to if it city attorney or the controller office if those can be kept and monitored in a way that's appropriate and i appreciate your consideration. i know it's a lot to balance. i recognize the work. >> i have a question -- >> president bito: anybody has comment or question?

>> your next steps talks about public outreach. could you define what that is? i understand they still have a public forum where people can call in and talk about their issues or complaints or present ideas. could you expand on what that public outreach is financial >> one of the things we talked about is increasing our transparency to get the services they want. we've updated our website. we've also begun the public advisory forum last year to give people chance to ask questions. it was very well attended. in terms of other public outreach, covid knocked us out of the community for l. -- almost two years. we done everything online. we want to make sure that we

have support and able to go out in communities and speak to communities so everybody is able to access services, understands the requirements and doesn't feel there are obstacles. we want to make sure we're inclusive. that's the purpose of the r.f.p. as we begin to build that out, we'll come back and share some of the direction we're going. overall goal is to reform the infrastructure for engaging the community after being knocked out for a couple of years. >> thank you. >> president bito: anybody else? madam secretary, i wanted to see if my fellow commissioners wanted to take a break, grab a drink of water. i know we're not allowed to do that here. would anybody like to take five minutes? >> we can do that, is there any public comment on this item?

>> caller: good morning. it's over simplification to characterize the d.b.i. problem is due to training weaknesses. whistleblower complaints are handed over to the department where the infraction occurred by the controllers office. that is a serious weakness. the d.b.i. report identified serious control weaknesses at d.b.i. one of the more serious control weaknesses identified in the report lack of system controls over the database that drives permit tracking system. this is a technical weakness that can easily be fixed. what does it mean that worlds can't be changed once finalized? this is nonsense. why do the records need to be finalized before their permanent records? somebody needs to think about

that. i recommend that director include update actions taken to address the specific findings in the controller's report in monthly future director updates. also, the director mentioned that d.b.i. was conducting a review of project. i like to know the review and identify the review with the public. i got to believe that burney problems are not due to training and weaknesses. >> clerk: any further public comment? i want to announce members of the public listening in, the public comment call in number is (415)655-0001. access code is 2494 694 1052 to raise your hand for public

comment on specific agenda item press star 3. we'll take a five minute recess. someone actually just raised their hand. we'll take that comment first. >> caller: any name is dennis richard. fast two years i -- [ indiscernible ] i think director reardon you're taking good first steps. i think there's a lot more that needs to be done. the fact there's been no reports or no respondents to your whistleblower hotline tells me a lot. if you -- this is around mission

local, you can see there's a culture of fear and retaliation at d.b.i. the individuals that i'm referring to are still there. they are individuals who have left. we know who they are and we know what they have done. i think one of the things that needs to happen is in private industry, random audits of individual employees. to make sure adhering to jury -- your business of conduct. you can see from the deposition, there were people such as responding to sunshine request. what's the point of having training ton sunshine request if somebody never bothers to do it? same with use of personal phone calls for business.

there's numerous items in your handbook regularly flouted, there needs to be no tolerance for people that break those rules and they should be fired. the other thing that i like to say, there needs to be a duty to report corruption, not if you feel like it or not. it needs to be a duty to report it. lastly, the best whistleblower comments you can find are about the apartment building inspection. keep looking at the comments those are put on there by people within the department that are afraid to come forward and speak. i hope this department get back to serving the public and not special interest. i intend to pursue over the next course of several years to work with you and make sure all these changes do happen. there's a lot of work to do.

thank you. >> any other comments? if there are in more callers, we'l >> hello, everyone. building inspection exhibition continued meeting. we are agenda item number 13, discussion regardlessing information sheet eg02,ening escape and rescue openings to the year of existing new building. >> i wanted to do a brief presentation to you on eg02. if you have any questions, i'll have deputy director here to answer your questions.

just little bit about where we are. the issue began in december 2018 when the california state fire marshal issued an interpretation that emergency skate and rescue openings, required to be accessible to fire departments using ground ladders for rescue purposes. last december, as you recall, d.b.i. amended its guidance and the design community and updated it to include the both an escape which already had been in existence and rescue criteria for fire fighting personnel using ground ladders in r3 occupancy. d.b.i. is currently meeting with representatives from the design community to get ideas on how to implement those changes on a more permanent basis. this has been a really collaborative effort in terms ofour meeting.

we had the direct participation of the fire marshal as well as the lieutenant fire marshal kathy harold as well as the principle architect at the planning department and current planning which is david winslow. we've been meeting with representatives from san francisco american institute of-- architects to receive feedback. first is what triggers compliance with the state fire marshal's interpretation and what changes need to be incorporated into the final revised document. again, i want to take you back a little bit. give you a sense of the meanings and actions that have taken place. also talk little bit about kind

of the process moving forward. i wanted to let you know that since we've made the changes and created a revised 90-day interim eg02 information sheetings we've been meeting with representatives from the a.i.a. we have the intention trying to arrive at a place being able to come up with some quality equivalency that hopefully can work for the design community that's based in principles of at the building code and public safety. our intention is to have an additional meeting in late march. ideally prior to the c.a.c. convening in the second week of april. then our goal is to come back to you in april with a fuller picture of the work that's been

gong on as it relates to this issue. be able to walk you through it and have a document for you to comment on. i'm here to answer any questions that you have. thank you. >> could i ask one question initially? you said you have one more meeting in april? >> yes. we intend to meet with a.i.a. either in late march or in early april. then we have -- we expect to be back before you in your april meeting. >> is it appropriate if we wanted to attend those meetings? is that possible? i guess that's a question for deputy city attorney just to listen to the feedback. >> this is deputy city attorney

rob kapla. it's best to have information pass not directly attend the meeting. >> okay, that's fine. open to my fellow commissioners? [ indiscernible ] >> clerk: is there any public comment on this item? >> caller: i like to know why are these standards only being updated for r3 projects? what about r1 and r2 project? there's a lot of r2 housing in the city. if you going through a program, that's the objective, egress is critical for r1, 2 and 3. thank you.

>> caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i sent an e-mail on the 14th to ms. harris. i've been sending photos of projects that i think illustrate this problem. i hope that you seen them too. the c.a.c. didn't meet last time. there was nothing from them which was unfortunate, they couldn't have a quorum. here are my questions. how specifically are d.b.i. staff reviewing projects on a case by case basis? how much project have been reviewed on the case by case basis since this revised sheet was published in 2021. if this revise the sheet truly

in compliance with the state fire marshal, is d.b.i. working with planning staff during early phase of project applications to meet the requirements? five, is building code interpretation egress 013 from march 2009 up to date with the state fire marshal. this is for r2 occupancy. will there be enforcement, if necessary, for some r projects, r3 specifically and what would trigger the enforcement? i have real world experience with this. this project across the street from me should have never been approved. it's not a place where you want to put your children or your mother-in-law. thank you very much for your time and take care. thank you.

>> clerk: if there's no additional public comment -- thank you. next item 14. commissioners questions. inquiry to staff. at this time, commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding document, policies, practices and procedures. >> president bito: opening it up to my fellow commissioners? commissioner tut. >> commissioner alexander-tut: i did requested the question that we get it on friday. i pressed gratitude for doing that. >> president bito: commissioner tam or sommer? [ indiscernible ]

>> we missed our opportunity while ms. madison was speaking earlier regarding finances. i wanted to ask if it's appropriate at this time and can be follow up later, i know that we talked about the fee study for permitting fees as part of the financial discussion, finance meeting the last couple of months. i wanted to see where that was. i know you mentioned if there will be an r.f.p. this year and see if there's an update on that. >> our last meeting discussed a study. where we are with the fee study, we will probably not conduct a

fee study until next fiscal year. next fiscal year, some time in the fall, maybe release an r.f.q. to start working on it. we want to have at least two or three years of data to use and we don't want the data to be only like 2021 which is our worse year ever. that will drive up what they are. we trying to get a place to smooth. we like to use 19, 20, 21, 22 and may be even push it out little bit more and have the fee study done. the goal is to have the fee study done before the end of this two-year budget cycle. the new budget cycle is 22-23, 23 and 24. before end of '24 we want to have the fee study done so that going forward, that we will have

the new fees in place. if 2 recall in the budget, right now, given where we see our revenues and expenses we have about another two years before we will have the funds to cover the budget. if revenues stay the same and expenditures stay the same. we want to use the next two years to see what the true revenue is. we're trying to get our budget down over the next two years so we're having the outside consultants help us we'll be looking at what our true expenses are. we don't want to make our fees base on a $90 million budget. >> clerk: any other comments?

we'll move ton to 14b, future meetings -- sorry, public comment. go ahead, i'm sorry. i forgot that. >> caller: hi. when you look at permit fees, they are base on a table of construction costs. i believe those costs are from 2016 or 2017. they are way out of date. d.b.i. has a revenue problem. i don't think you need to wait a year or two to fix it. it would be prudent and professional to update those costs. other issue d.b.i. has is permit -- plan checkers, frequently find the cost that are submitted are grossly understated. you have two leakages here in revenue. you don't need a fee study to fix them.

you need management, leadership to fix them. thank you. >> clerk: any other public comment? this is going to be on 14a and b. any other public comment? thank you. 14b is future meetings and agendas. at this time, the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and term those items that can be placed on the agenda offal next meeting of a building inspection commission. our next regular meeting is going to be on april 20th. commissioners, any comments? >> president bito: i don't have anything. fellow commissioners do you want add anything?

14b? >> i have two items. we had previously had a rate equity committee of the b.i.c. it's now committee of one, which is me because of other commissioners no longer serving. i'm hoping we can put that on the agenda for next time. there are plans about six different items that are commission item. they are relatively -- they're not like gigantic lists. some of them are in a time line to get them on director's report in may. i'm hoping that we can have that scheduled for next committee. i forgot about that subcommittee. thank you for reminding me. very important one.

the second, i like to -- maybe to the president of the commission, if you have thoughts on this -- i would like to either discuss or have some committees review some of the recommendations from the climate reality project. i'm very curious about the implications. if there are either actions we can take now or if there are recommendations that can make decision-making bodies who govern things like code. i will be kind of open to where that is. i like to see that on a future agenda or assign to one of the subcommittees. >> president bito: i think that's a good decision. i like to get a comprehensive understanding. d.b.i. already has initiatives and policies and ordinances that

are part of that. i think getting a holistic view to see what you can do to augment that. i think that's a good potential agenda item. perhaps, we can talk about that director reardon so that the commission has an understand some of the sustainability policies that d.b.i. is implementing or pending adoption. >> absolutely. >> president bito: thank you commissioner tut. one other item i like to add, we are having a client services subcommittee on march 24th which you will now attend. i'm looking forward to hearing what deputy director neville has to present to that. specifically we're looking at some of the backlog issues or questions about that. i think he was going to parse out some of the data and

information for us to understand a little bit more clearly and bring back to the b.i.c. if that something -- we normally have a monthly report back to the b.i.c. what are some of the discussions and if there there's any potential recommendations we make. does anybody else have anything to add? >> clerk: thank you. we taken public comment on 14a and b. our next item is item 15, review and approval of the minutes the following meetings. special meeting of january 14, 2022, regular meeting of januart meeting of january 26, 2022, special budget meeting of

february 10, 2022, there's a correction on this meeting on page 2 paragraph 2. one of the persons mentioned name was listed as audrey ram, that will be changed to audrey rome. the last one is regular meeting of february 16, 2022. >> i like to make a motion to approve the minutes. >> second. >> clerk: there's a motion and second. any public comment on the motion? seeing none, all commissioners in favor? >> aye. any oppose? >> clerk: thank you. minutes are approved. our next item is 16, adjournment. is there a motion to adjourn? >> motion to adjourn and we like to welcome commissioner neumann to the commission and we look forward to working with you. >> clerk: thank you.

>> second. >> clerk: welcome. we are now adjourned. all commissioners in favor? >> aye. >> clerk: it is 11:12 a.m. thank you.

dev mission's goal is aiming to train young adults, youth so we can be a wealth and disparity in underserved communities like where we are today. my name is leo sosa. i'm the founder and executive director for devmission. we're sitting inside a computer lab where residents come and

get support when they give help about how to set up an e-mail account. how to order prescriptions online. create a résumé. we are also now paying attention to provide tech support. we have collaborated with the san francisco mayor's office and the department of technology to implement a broad band network for the residents here so they can have free internet access. we have partnered with community technology networks to provide computer classes to the seniors and the residents. so this computer lab becomes a hub for the community to learn how to use technology, but that's the parents and the adults. we have been able to identify what we call a stem date. the acronym is science technology engineering and math. kids should be exposed no matter what type of background or ethnicity or income status. that's where we actually create magic. >> something that the kids are

really excited about is science and so the way that we execute that is through making slime. and as fun as it is, it's still a chemical reaction and you start to understand that with the materials that you need to make the slime. >> they love adding their little twists to everything. it's just a place for them to experiment and that's really what we want. >> i see. >> really what the excitement behind that is that you're making something. >> logs, legos, sumo box, art, drawing, computers, mine craft, and really it's just awaking opportunity. >> keeping their attention is like one of the biggest challenges that we do have because, you know, they're kids. they always want to be doing something, be helping with something. so we just let them be themselves. we have our set of rules in place that we have that we want them to follow and live up to. and we also have our set of

expectations that we want them to achieve. this is like my first year officially working with kids. and definitely i've had moments where they're not getting something. they don't really understand it and you're trying to just talk to them in a way that they can make it work teaching them in different ways how they can get the light bulb to go off and i've seen it first-hand and it makes me so happy when it does go off because it's like, wow, i helped them understand this concept. >> i love playing games and i love having fun with my friends playing dodge ball and a lot of things that i like. it's really cool. >> they don't give you a lot of cheese to put on there, do they? you've got like a little bit left. >> we learn programming to make them work.

we do computers and programming. at the bottom here, we talk to them and we press these buttons to make it go. and this is to turn it off. and this is to make it control on its own. if you press this twice, it can do any type of tricks. like you can move it like this and it moves. it actually can go like this. >> like, wow, they're just absorbing everything. so it definitely is a wholehearted moment that i love experiencing. >> the realities right now, 5.3

latinos working in tech and about 6.7 african americans working in tech. and, of course, those tech companies are funders. so i continue to work really hard with them to close that gap and work with the san francisco unified school district so juniors and seniors come to our program, so kids come to our stem hub and be exposed to all those things. it's a big challenge. >> we have a couple of other providers here on site, but we've all just been trying to work together and let the kids move around from each department. some kids are comfortable with their admission, but if they want to jump in with city of dreams or hunter's point, we just try to collaborate to provide the best opportunity in the community. >> devmission has provided services on westbrook.

they teach you how to code. how to build their own mini robot to providing access for the youth to partnerships with adobe and sony and google and twitter. and so devmission has definitely brought access for our families to resources that our residents may or may not have been able to access in the past. >> the san francisco house and development corporation gave us the grant to implement this program. it hasn't been easy, but we have been able to see now some of the success stories of some of those kids that have been able to take the opportunity and continue to grow within their education and eventually become a very successful citizen. >> so the computer lab, they're doing the backpacks. i don't know if you're going to be able to do the class. you still want to try? . yeah. go for it.

>> we have a young man by the name of ivan mello. he came here two and a half years ago to be part of our digital arts music lab. graduating with natural, fruity loops, rhymes. all of our music lyrics are clean. he came as an intern, and now he's running the program. that just tells you, we are only creating opportunities and there's a young man by the name of eduardo ramirez. he tells the barber, what's that flyer? and he says it's a program that teaches you computers and art. and i still remember the day he walked in there with a baseball cap, full of tattoos. nice clean hair cut. i want to learn how to use computers. graduated from the program and he wanted to work in i.t.. well, eduardo is a dreamer.

right. so trying to find him a job in the tech industry was very challenging, but that didn't stop him. through the effort of the office of economic work force and the grant i reached out to a few folks i know. post mates decided to bring him on board regardless of his legal status. he ended his internship at post mates and now is at hudacity. that is the power of what technology does for young people that want to become part of the tech industry. what we've been doing, it's very innovative. helping kids k-12, transitional age youth, families, parents, communities, understand and to be exposed to stem subjects. imagine if that mission one day can be in every affordable housing community.

the opportunities that we would create and that's what i'm trying to do with this

>> ok. good afternoon and welcome back to the san francisco historic preservation commission first in-person hearing in almost two years. for wednesday, march 16, 2022. members of the public and staff may also attend remotely and we will be venturing into the new land of hybrid hearings. in-person and remote hybrid hearings require everyone's attention and most of all your patience. if you are joining us remotely and are not speaking, please mute your microphone. to enable public participation, sfgov tv is brau casting and streaming this hearing live and we'll receive public comment for each item on today's agenda.