in addition to finding out from the assessors recores probably the place i would start is an original permit building for a building after 1906. here's a building permit and you can get these by filling out one of those little forms we have over there. micro film records request. right, alan? and you take it to the accounter and say, here's what i would say -- i want to see every record available for my building including the permits, the plans, the job cards because that's where the inspectors sign off on and what else do we have over there. >> well, basically we have building permit applications or job cards or jobs done by district inspectors department to say it's final or not finaled with an expired job card and, plumbing, electrical permits. >> how come -- i thought we didn't. >> we do have some and miscallaneous documents and letters where people sent to the city and documents tham come through another department before us. now, what we don't have and we have building plans let me say buildings -- most wood frame houses residentials don't have plans in my recollection but comme

it does not go to the assessor reporter's office. between 30 and 36 inches off the ground, you need a permit. you can expand the entire size of your rear yard. if you are more than 36 inches off the ground, you have to meet the planning department open space requirements and encroachment requirements. there is a whole range. another thing would be converting an unfinished basement or adding living area, which is happening very often. people are taking the back of their grosz and turning it into their room, or an attic. that is happening in lot. you have to be assessed for that. i think that is a very green thing to do because you do not have to add building. do you have anything to say about general improvement? >> it is a big additional we are talking about attic space. when you are retrofitting for earthquakes two stories up in an edwardian, the expense involved, i think, would be hard to justify in most neighborhoods. >> it is hard to get enough windows with dormers, etc. >> how about converting the attic into storage? >> you said

over the past five years, you have no phil to be a problem solving assessor. the mayor talked about some of his success. the fact that he has generated $245 million above projected revenues at a time of this kind of economic crisis is nothing short of extraordinary. for as long as i have known him, he has been an incredibly forward-looking intellectual, a passionate leader, and that is something that has been consistent whether as a student leader, leader in the community leadership role, or as the assessor. before he came to office, he was a strong civil rights leader. he thought and protected the legal and civil rights for asian-pacific islanders and all people in the city who needed their services. he served the asian law caucus, the board for the california equality institute, defending work to secure legal protections for lgbt people. this is important to me as the first day speaker. he and i go back so long, he probably remembers when i dated women. [laughter] i think this is long enough in where you can do the joke, mayor. becoming san francisco's highe

restrictions under the planning code and we would ask you record it and it would be on file that assessors recording office and you can look it up and print this off and you would be surprised and who has the rights to drill on your backyard or exit across your front yard there are many, easements. >> i would like to add when the as see sore is taxing you on what's physically out there and not what's legally out there, many people come to us and say i have this apartment and this room in the basement -- they get the history of their building from our records management department and say say, there is nothing in the building department that says build this but i'm being taxed on it and again, that's more money for the city because it's more square foot age and they tax you on what's physically out there. >> on page 22 of the hand-out you have is a certificate of final completion and occupancy. when a buildings put up we currently have and for many years up to -- when to the 50s maybe? >> in 1945 they issued those but unfortunately for every job that was ever done site may say reroofing and

so it should be the same information as the tax assessor. >> it's a good simple starting point. jeremy, what's that magnifying glass for that you have in your pocket. >> just because it has that sherlock holmes thing. so much of what i do involves looking through directories and all of these map's for changes that have been made and tracking when those things were done and there are other sources in text that can be very difficult to get through but have really wonderful pieces of information. the voters rolls. the pulp directories tell you things about the fabric of the city. i had an interesting case to establish a legal dwelling unit that had to pre date a certain date with a ceiling height and it turns out a person resided at this address that was a bartender and a regular sterd socialist. the owner of the building that lived there owned the bar and he was the current chairman of the socialist party of the city. with that city planning was willing to acknowledge the bartender lived in his bosses unit in the basement of his house. there you have it. >> amazing. we will stick

currently available is sf parcel the assessor's application. you can go to the assessor's website and bring up a map of san francisco you can search by address and get information about any place in san francisco. you can search by address and find incidents of crime in san francisco in the last 90 days. we have [inaudible] which allows you to click on a map and get nchldz like your supervisor or who your supervisor is. the nearest public facility. and through the sf applications we support from the mayor's office of neighborhood services. you can drill down in the neighborhood and get where the newest hospital or police or fire station. >> we are positive about gis not only people access it in the office but from home because we use the internet. what we used to do was carry the large maps and it took a long time to find the information. >> it saves the city time and money. you are not taking up the time of a particular employee at the assessor's office. you might be doing things more efficient. >> they have it ready to go and say, this is wha

assessor phil ting plays a crucial role in our city. his office is responsible for calling on all of us to pay our property taxes. maybe not so popular, but we like him. [laughter] his office makes sure that the revenue is here for the city budget. without further ado, please welcome city assessor phil ting. >> thank you. i am usually not popular with everyone else, but with other city officials, i am very popular. come budget time, they come calling. welcome to city hall. happy new year, everybody. it is an honor to see all of you here. it is a reminder for all of us as public servants that we are here to serve you. the day we opened city hall to all of you -- it is quite an honor to see all of you here celebrating with us. it is a reminder of how we have to constantly keep city hall opened, not just for the folks that have access, but for those that do not. it has been a struggle. as my colleagues have talked about, it has been a struggle for the community. and it is not over yet. we have some high hurdles to face, serious budget issu

our city assessor started the conversation about prop. 13. there are several things in place on the state and local level having an adverse affect on our financial health locally. we are in a quandary. we cannot really move beyond that until we remove the pocket. prop. 13 is a serious block. it would free up hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be brought into public schools and could also be in fused in our local -- infused in our local and state economy. that is a very complicated question, and one i have only brush the surface on. that is another segment. >> we will follow that by another complicated question. i would like to get your thoughts on homelessness and what the city is doing about homelessness, what direction you think we should be headed in, a big issue in san francisco. >> homelessness is interesting. when you look at it as a sociological perspective, we have some of the people in the homeless community enjoying being on the street. others want help. i think when we also -- we need to do a better job of taking care of t

currently available is sf parcel the assessor's application. you can go to the assessor's website and bring up a map of san francisco you can search by address and get information about any place in san francisco. you can search by address and find incidents of crime

the next few pages are general information of the assessor recorder's office, including the appeal someone mentioned, the appeals process where you can dispute evaluation assessment. there are other contact numbers, so i encourage you to call them and ask questions. anything you would like to add? >> i appreciate being on the panel here and on your program. i think it is important to look at goals carefully. i think that is important to help round out your vision process. >> i am going to keep the green thing in mind. >> thank you for coming. see you next month for "building [appla [applause] [applause] >> thank you, everyone for joining us. good evening and welcome to mayor edwin lee and san francisco city hall possible lunar new year celebration. i am lisa ahng, the liaison of mayor li's to the asian-american community. i want to preface this part by siam only 1/8 chinese, so there is only a 12.5% chance this will go as it should. [speaking chinese] to start up the night, we have the chair of the treasure island board of directors and chairman of the asian american pacific celebration co

you are not taking up the time of a particular employee at the assessor's office. you might be doing things more efficient. >> they have it ready to go and say, this is what i want. >> they are finding the same things happening on the phone where people call in and ask, how do i find this information? we say, go to this website and they go and get the information easily. >> a picture tells a thousand stories. the biggest issue in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one... >> hello, good evening. it is a great pleasure to be here with all of you tonight. i'm the director of your office of neighborhood services, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome you here tonight to celebrate the persian new year here in the rotunda of city hall. it is with great pleasure that i introduce to you

this is what most assessor's up and down the state are doing. homeowners are reliable -- of all property owners are eligible for a temporary, 1-year property-tax assessment reduction if they believe or if we believe dave -- the assess the value has fallen above their market value, which means that the value would be lower than the market value. in general, homeowners who are eligible, chances are, they purchased homes after 2003. we do get applicants who have owned homes since 1995 or earlier. in general, anybody who is owned their home prior to 2003, they are doing well, which is good news. chances are the market value is higher than the assessed value, meaning the property appreciate it. people we are able to offer little relief for, the sad news is, their homes have depreciated. there will be a little bit of relief for them. in general, last year, we saw 6400 applicants in comparison to four years ago when we had 248 requests. the form a simple. it is one page. name, telephone number, e-mail, and the address you are applying for. if you can g

the assessor information is down below here. it is also a nice feature. it comes down to other regulations that relate to the planning total. it will bring up the information that is relevant to that. we get in the preservation information. the landmark no. 21 is great. we also have a bunch of survey field forms the you can get the animation and just by clicking the link as well. here is an old form that is also pertinent to this information here. you can see the latest projects, and project information. we link the planning information center here for information. if it is a relatively your project case, it is certainly nice to have. willing to the building permits as well. you can come here and look at some of the quick information. it goes to the website and pulls of in-house the building permit information as well. the other permits are miscellaneous permit. as you scroll down, we have had complaints related to the planning department. as far as the vacco is, if you are not sure where you're going, but you have a street or an address that can get you

[applause] the assessor for the city and county of san francisco, phil teng. the treasurer of the city and county of san francisco, jose cisneros. [applause] the public defender and the man that first whispered to george, you should be the d.a., jeff hadachi. one of the judges with whom we have worked for years, lilian singh. [applause] and of course the woman who was your lifeline from here to hong kong when you were trying to escape this awesome responsibility, rose pack. [applause] fire chief of the city and county of san francisco, joanne hayes white. and a man whose work as an architect in three or four administrations, a man that i got from the board of supervisors years ago, he became deputy chief of staff and then chief of staff under mayor newsom, steve koba, chief of staff. and as always, you're in good hands of public safety, but only if there is a police chief, and there is one here, the acting police chief, jeff godong. [applause] the controller, a man who could cook the books or make it very difficult for you, ben rosenfeld. [applause] and from o

information of the assessor recorder's office, including the appeal someone mentioned, the appeals process where you can dispute evaluation assessment. there are other contact numbers, so i encourage you to call them and ask questions. anything you would like to add? >> i appreciate being on the panel here and on your program. i think it is important to look at goals carefully. i think that is important to help round out your vision process. >> i am going to keep the green thing in mind. >> thank you for coming. see you next month for "building >> good afternoon, i'm lawrence kornfield. welcome to our brown bag lunch. the fire department as a lot to do with fire escapes in san francisco. we have tens of thousands of fire escapes in san francisco. it's sort of like utility wires, until you start looking for them. you don't even see them. today we're going to look at them and for them and talk a little bit about what they are there for and how they should be maintained. what our standards are. so we are right here in front of building services office at 1660 mission street. we have one of ma