reversed the abatement order. let it go through the planning process. this way, no one uses it while it is going to planning until it is resolved. i think that would be the best solution. is there any way to accomplish that? >> we had better check to see if the deck is part of the system. >> i would like to figure out if the deck is part of the mx -- annexing system. >> are there guard rails? are they high enough? can you explain that? >> we do not have an issue, therefore we cannot categorically say. we have to assume it is on safe. >> could i have -- is this the -- is that a whirlpool on top? is that a pool? >> what that is, there is a storefront on about -- ground floor. the hood is to protect the skylight. >> how about this? take a 30 day continuance and have staff look at the issues of exporting. and then come back to the abatement heart. >> commissioners? >> what was that? >> a 30 day continuance. going out to see if the deck is a required exit. with a chance to review the tape. >> i am ok with that, but the issue here, we did have an order of aba

>> item e is adjournment. >> aye. >> abatement is adjourned. we will take a 10 minute recess. >> hello. welcome to "culturewire." we are here today with bay area artist jody chanel, and we are here to see the plaza where your piece has just been installed. >> i have been doing large-scale paintings in the galleries and museums, and the idea that in the future, i could do something that would hang out a little bit longer than the duration of the installation the kind of appeal to me. i quickly found out about the san francisco arts commission school and realized there was a pre-qualified school you had to apply to, so i applied to the. >> how long did it take you to develop this work for the plaza? >> this was a fast track project. design development was about a month. >> let's look at the beautiful mural. i have never seen a mural created on asphalt. >> the heat of the asphalt, a new layer of asphalt. then, these wire rope templates that were fabricated for the line work get laid down and literally stamped into the asphalt, and then everything

the case was abated. but i am not familiar in any

i believe that the order of abatement was not issued clearly enough at the hearing. last hearing, unless there is a subset -- something subsequent to that tape that the staff has. i would say that we do not have jurisdiction on this. that we return it to the spot. if they wanted to have eight directors hearing, going through that process, they could bring it back to us. >> was at the same thing? >> we are doing the same thing. >> [inaudible] excuse me for a second. commissioner? are we all set? we will go with commissioner clint, then the rebuttal. >> if there was an order of a

this is a meeting of the abatement appeals board. i would like to remind everyone to turn off all electronic devices. the first item on the agenda is roll call. [roll call] we have a quorum. the next item is the old spirit will all parties giving testimony today please stand and raise your right hand? where is the other gentleman? ok. commissioner lee: we can do that later when he comes back. >> i did not think will work first on the agenda. >> we are doing the oath of office. i am side, the testimony. will all parties giving testimony today please stand and raise your right hand? do you swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth to the best of your knowledge? >> yes. >> thank you. this is an abatement appeals board meeting of the process of the department. the department has seven minutes. then the appellate has seven minutes. each side is allowed three minutes for a bottle. item number c is new appeals. order of abatement. cases 6750, 619 diamond street. all our record lindsay chambers. action requested by appellate --

appellate requested that the order of abatement be reversed and assessment costs be waived. appellate requested that dbi issue a permit to confirm the legality of the debt pursuant to the plans and calculations of structural design engineers based on valuation of no more than $5,000 and without any additional penalties or be spirit testimony, deliberation, and possible action to uphold, modify, or reverse the order of abatement. commissioner lee: ok, the department first. >> field 6747, address 1117 geary boulevard. first and second notice of violation was issued. the violation in this case installed a deck on the roof. if directors hearing took place on march 10. an order of abatement issued with conditions, to file for a building permit with plans to legalize or remove the deck installed. and that the final condition, 90 days to complete all work including final inspection approval. there was a permit issued in 2008 for a commercial roof. that permit was signed off. it is reasonable to conclude that there would have been no deck on the surface when that permit was signed o

as a result of the ceiling down earlier this year, an order of abatement was issued subject to conditions. 180 days to complete all work including final inspection approval. there were numerous permits issued the most recent permit in this year is only at the filings that is. if the permit was issued at all the work completed and signed off, it would deal with the violation. take into consideration that that has not happened, staff recommends to uphold the order of abatement and impose assessment of tax. >> you said something there about the facade of the commercial being altered. what is that all about? >> is that a permit you are referring to? commissioner murphy: i am referring to work that has been done or has not been done. has the facade been altered? >> no, just for your information, this is a city attorney case. it is been in office for some time. i believe there is a change of ownership in recent months, and they seem to be getting permits. commissioner walker: so it is the permitting and the work subsequent to -- i mean, what is being requested in here is to add more time on to

all the utility boxes in public right-of-way we abate. >> we abate calls that come within 48 hours. >> we are a small group in g f graffiti. we don't have enough help. >> i have a group in town down and china town and the north tunnel. [inaudible] the graffiti we abate everything is coming up to the areas now. >> i'm willing to take it on. i think -- >> you are telling me you are ready for this? >> i think so. >> okay. >> there you go. >> all right. >> all right. >> ready to do it. let's go. >> want to get the gray signses this over here and the garbage can and normally we don't do private property since it's on the corridor route you can come with me we will use black. >> we had a lot of changes in the graffiti unit. we do private property if someone moved we remove it and send it to the attorney's office and they take appropriate action. >> damage their property there. it's important to write the color in case they want to say what part of our house you abated the graffiti on. >> using your safety glasses the gloves. >> you got it. >> you know some places we gashi, people appreciate

they welcome that repair work to actually abate these notices of violation. it is very important that the board understand that that is not an issue here at all. the only issue here, once again, is that based on permit holder's communications with appellants based on the permit holders lack of response to the appellants' fears over the last few months in regards to their laundry, they filed this appeal. hopefully with better communication between the parties, we would not be here tonight, but unfortunately, there has been very little if any response from permit holder to indicate to the appellants that he will not, in fact, use this permit to eliminate their laundry facilities. all of this is a brief to, maybe a little bit too much repetitively in the statement appeal but the appellants submitted to the board. i would like to quickly go through the reasons why this board should, in fact, preserve the appellants' laundry facilities. first, two are disabled, one severely disabled. she lives on the ground for, sherida. she is quite simply incapable of doing her

the proper inspections were given and the case has been debated. -- abated. the penalties i believe are [unintelligible] >whoever applies for the plumbing permit, that penalty would be assessed. that was probably a licensed plumber. this was done in the restaurant. all this worked -- the plumbing permits could be at -- obtained by a licensed plumber. it could not be obtained by the lessee or the homeowner. any kind of pervert -- permit like this. >> the licensed plumber is the one who pays a fine? >> they could pass that on to whoever they are doing the work for. which is pretty normal. he could pass these on to the client. >> what specifically factors into the decision by your department to ask for the full nine times penalty? >> mr. pinelli stated that it is work in the restaurant. it was a significant amount of work. they did not know they needed a permit. if you are doing this type of work in your own home, you would need a plumbing permit. you need a permit for this type of work. it is -- it did take them quite a few months to get to -- in touch with us.

go ahead and make the comment. >> the violation for lead abatement will consider a substantial amount of work on my apartment -- what else could warrant my needing to be relocated? every wall come every ceiling, doris, and windows are being replaced. this is coming up. i think the date is the 28 of this month. what then? will i be sleeping on a blow up mattress while they are constructing around me doing the walls? i ask for a continuance like and go to the rent board and this can be heard on friday. commissioner garcia: you're fully aware of all the implications. all right. thank you. >> october 5. commissioner garcia: if we determine that a decision has been rendered and they were to ask the office for a later date, the office could do that unilaterally. correct? >> there is always the option of rescheduling of the parties agree. if they don't agree, it would be the president's decision. >> we could put it on october 5, but it does not sound like there will be more information at that time. >> after hearing counsel for the permit holder, i would actually change my vote, if that is p

>> we expressed at the department of abatement inspection, these are our standards. if it seems safe, that is perfectly appropriate. thank you. good job. >> is there any public comment on item number six? item number 7, the report on key complaint compliance time frames, statistics on repeat offenders, and recommendations for resolution. >> members of the commission, the last time i was before you, we spoke about complaint actions regarding those complaints in the department. at the time, we spoke of the department's initial response. there are approximately 289 heat complaints in 2010. since that time, the commission asked us to look more into detail but i came to code enforcement response issues. that universe has dropped down. with that, i would like to discuss the rose -- revised figure that was submitted to you for the purpose of this presentation and subsequently to its of it be, giving you recommendations on the revised exhibit day. with that, i will go ahead and start, from left to right. so, as i indicated, we have been talking about for 2010 was 285 complai

permit for the correction of that work, once that work is corrected, we will go into the system and abate that complaint. if no permit is obtained, that probably means no work has been done. >> the fee is going to the tax collector car for the directors hearing and assess the cost, not for the permit to correct a problem. these that have not been paid -- fees that have not been paid. commissioner hechanova: so the project, in essence, goes in limbo be on the directors hearing, because there is no confirmation that the work had been performed? >> the inspector works to see if the work is done. if there is no permit, the work probably had not been done and they were probably tried to get its abated. commissioner hechanova: there always seems to be a lag time with our department. is that always the case? >> i feel on our side, the department, we are trying to get these complaints corrected in a timely manner. by posting correct notifications and sending what is required, once it goes from us to the next set of city attorney, code enforcement, directors hearings, etc., we can only go so far.

this permit was simply a permit issued over the counter to abate two notices of violation. if you look at the permit holders response, -- permit holder's response, he attaches a letter, which the appellants and did not attach, from june 3 in the permit holder response to this appeal, and this letter apparently indicates that the appellants will need to remove their laundry facilities from the deck, and they will not be able to put their laundry facilities back on the debt if, in fact, after the repairs are made, so based on this letter, based on the communications that the appellant foster had with the permit holder's agent, who assured appellant -- after the silence on this issue, it was very reasonable for the appellants to believe that they needed to take this step and file this appeal in order to preserve their laundry facilities. very quickly, in addition to the significant hardship, that it would work on the two disabled and a senior tenants, their policies, including the encouragement of housing that is suited to the special needs of seniors and disabled tenants. als

permit for the correction of that work, once that work is corrected, we will go into the system and abate that complaint. if no permit is obtained, that probably means no work has been done. >> the fee is going to the tax collector car for the directors hearing and assess the cost, not for the permit to correct a problem. these that have not been paid -- fees that have not been paid. commissioner hechanova: so the project, in essence, goes in limbo be on the directors hearing, because there is no confirmation that the work had been performed? >> the inspector works to see if the work is done. if there is no permit, the work probably had not been done and they were probably tried to get its abated.

we have orders of abatement, but it is usually for building that have to come down, for a stairway that collapses. we give the person a reasonable amount of time and work with them. as long as we see something going on, a contractor, said of plans, someone going through the permit process -- and i believe with 570 o'farrell, i believe that is what we are seeing. we have someone here who can address that. >> chief plumbing inspector, dbi. i spoke with the owner of the building at 570, i have spoken with the contractors working with them. they explained it is in fairly good, running condition. it is an old system. i sent out one of my staff to go out there, who is knowledgeable on boilers and systems. he told me it is still running, but at this time next year, we will not accept any certifications from the contractor who certified it already from the past year. it looks like they are doing repairs to where it is in compliance but the repairs are surviving only to an extent and that are falling apart again. unfortunately, with his unit, the building, they are going down for a few days at t

. -- there was an abatement conference with dph. another meeting. the owners had an opportunity to explain or to develop whatever their concerns were, the difficulties were, with respect to operating. i understand that the owners in this case would like to be able to have their patrons smoke. however, the health code expressly prohibits that. what complicates matters further, the smoking is taking place in a mixed use building. there is residential space immediately above the premises, and there are a number of tenants in that building that have complained to the department of public health regarding second-hand smoke, and they are present. there are representatives of dph that can speak to specific complaints, but it is my understanding that residents of the way up to the 10th floor have talked about the secondhand smoke. commissioner fung: are we listening for a case for a continuance? we did not approach this as a case, right? director goldstein: we did. we just called it out of order. commissioner fung: we did proved so we are hearing it? -- we

he was able to abate the citation based on the fact that we were not wrongfully cited but we should have been cited for the scope of the work we performed at the back end of the restaurant near the restrooms but we did not touch anything at the front end. i did mention to the inspector that we were going to remodel the kitchen area and we would install new plumbing and new gas lines. the new grease trap. he mentioned that in doing so, retaining a licensed plumber and apply for the necessary permits. we're in the process of doing just that. for the front end of the restaurant. >> does this find that you're asking to be reduced include the work that was done prior to your tenancy? >> i do not believe it does. >> thank you. mr. duffy, anything further? no? the matter is submitted. >> i cannot figure out how they got to the figure they did. if -- if it is nine times the permit. you do eight and add the fee to arrive at the figure? i do not how they arrived at 2799. if he is not worried about it i do not know that i should. >> that would be based upon at nine times, it would be based upon a p

the government crackdown against the pro-democracy movement in syria shows no sign of abating. the northwest, the government is reportedly carrying out the door to door searches. no one knows how many have been detained, possibly tortured. it is not possible to get a reliable picture of what is going on in syria. there are tight controls on the media. the images that you see here and other news channels are generally shot with mobile phone and then smuggled out of the country. we met a group of dissidents in georgia. from there, they're trying to keep the protest movement alive. >> the demonstrations against the regime of president assad are in their sixth month. every friday after prayers, the protesters take to the streets. for the first time, the demonstrators have appealed to the international community for protection. we're on our way to visit syrian activists who fled into exile. some do not want their faces shown for fear of retribution. >> we get videos from syria on memory cards like these. people risk their lives to shoot this footage and then smuggled over the border

with the recent announcement of the twitter headquarters being relocated theire, and the tax abatement district, there has been renewed interest in this area. all of this activity is within just a couple of blocks of the project site. this is a through lot. it goes through to jesse street. it is about a block away from me -- from the soma grand. it is on an alleyway. this would be an ideal location for workforce housing. it is in walking and biking distance to both the civic center and the financial district, the main employment centers in the city. people living in this building will not contribute to any car traffic. they're going to be able to walk, bike, or take public transit. they are a block away from bart and all the new alliance-- the muni lines. there has been no opposition at all, which is always a good thing. we are glad the neighbors are happy with it. finally, i have made a lot of trips to the project site since we filed the application. that was almost a year ago. every time i have been there, the total area has been deserted, except for homeless people, and drug people.

also abatement of removing graffiti in public and private property. reporting of bulky items in the neighborhood to the department of public works and weeding of tree basins and planters. we provide car washing and steam cleaning of the sidewalks and other spaces. in 2010, the clean team remove 337 nails that were found -- removed 337 needles that were found. they also removed 149 trash receptacles that were overflowing with trash and removed also 1000 instances of graffiti tags, stickers, and flyers that were posted on public and private property. in addition, we also provide the community with a dispatch and call center service similar to a 311 service but specific to the neighborhood. in the instances where someone, whether it is a merchant or a resident needs assistance of the committee guides, they can contact the dispatch and call center number and request service. also if there is an immediate social service need in the neighborhood, the community guide to have been trained by the city's homeless outreach team, and various social service agenci

and perhaps some ideas for abating some of these issues can be developed in time for next year's festival. that's agreeable to you. commissioner buell: i might get the staff to weigh in on this. >> sure. we will certainly, i know other planet will sit down and analyze all the complaints. i think it's worth noting that we actually do a lot of this already. we do a lot of outreach prior to the event and we will do outreach post event in responding to some of the complaints and analyzing the complaints. during public comment -- there is a significant amount of outreach particularly in the sunset and richmond neighborhoods and how to balance what is a very joyous event and economically important event for a lot of people with some of the neighborhood concerns. we will continue to strive to do that. commissioner buell: so just recommend, then, let commissioners know if there is any appropriate time they could participate or be of assistance and we'll try and facilitate. >> we are now on item number 4 which is general public comment. it is up to 15 minutes. at this time members of the public ma

indicate to them they were in violation of the law, and they met with me even before we had our first abatement conference. when they met with me, we actually sat down at separate times. during those meetings, i did really try to get her to talk to me right here in city hall because they were aware how the businesses were going to be affected. they were trying to connect these with an agency that could help them develop a business model. katherine decided she could not go that route. i don't know if you have any other questions for me. >> thank you. >> you are welcome. >> i have a question. i am curious. this is sort of a tangential question. in this instance, it is alleged that the law was broken, and yet there were multiple opportunities for either warning or some type of mitigation of what occurred. yet, with the mom-and-pop stings, there is no warning. there is no potential litigation. it is a strict penalty. i'm curious how the department justifies that. >> i would submit that there were warnings. in this case, the notice to comply was received back in december, indicating that no- smoking