. >> an update on dbi. >> good morning, commissioners. good morning, vice president mar and commissioners. today we have a brief item. as requested last month by president hechanova, we're here to provide you a tentative timetable for the plan. we will adjust it as needed. our primary focus right now is on our human resources. that is our dbi staff preparation, education, and training. the goal is to ensure the health and safety of our staff at work and ensure our ability to perform are a disaster response duties effectively integrated with other departments. i have the initial work plan that we have drafted. i put some time lines on that. i could go through that for you, or if you want to pick out anything that you notice, we can discuss that as well. we have tried to be realistic and reasonable in the timeframe given the amount of projects and objectives that we have ahead of us. through the prioritization process, we have made some good improvements in the last 60 days. any questions? commissioner murphy: the disaster service -- what d

i'm here today to keep complaining that dbi, bic, et cetera, are unfair to me. i have said many times, as i have said today, justice delayed is justice denied. anyone of you, including the deputy city attorney here -- have you done any research or any investigation? vivian day has given new her information and it is not complete. i want an investigation by the city attorney, i repeat, and the report of the commissioners. i have just 30 seconds to show you that this was the problem. there were two units, 572 and 572 a. the plan in 2002 was to have an additional units on the third floor , 674. this unit was never built. this is already a violation. how can we have this recognized as a real number? thank you. vice president mar: any other public comment? i just wanted to thank all the people that appeared for public comment. you should know that sometimes we cannot fully discussed these issues because they're not on the agenda. that does not mean they will not be and dicgendized in the futur. that is kind of the process the commission is run. they may be under our

commissioner murphy: so the complaint would come into you, to dbi first? >> generally, yes, it would start at the third floor as a routine complaint. then it would be routed to the sixth floor, to the building inspector we have assigned to that particular task. >> because we have had a wet spring, through june, i am sure the growth of that, especially on lots that are vulnerable, especially this summer, to brush fires. we normally think about that as outside of san francisco, but is that a possibility, where there might be a higher category of keeping an eye out for these large lots, open lots with weed growth that will ultimately become fire material by the end of summer? >> what comes to mind is alemany housing projects. it seemed to be a lot of grass fires. you might see something like that in hunters point, around the middle point. if that acreage is not taking care of, certainly, can be a fire danger. the fire department is looking at that. most of that is publicly-owned land, so that would not be in our per view. dpw, fire department, health. commiss

dbi deputy director. we get a lot of board supervisor inquiry about this. lately, we have been getting a lot of the hunters point bayview area -- complaints coming before you. that seems to be, more or less, the hot area. just this week, we had a board of supervisors inquiry at manna church. over the course of the month, we have referred a couple of cases to the city attorney. we expect to make a few cases. dpw, ourselves, we do work together -- for instance, a lot of this is carried over to the blight ordinance. dpw carries most of the water. they are responsible, certainly, for graffiti, responsible for a vacant lots that are overgrown. garbage on the sidewalk. i would say probably the biggest crossover and confusion is the private buildings in san francisco. on waller street, the biggest issue was homeless teenagers sleeping and leaving garbage. the complaint came to us to do something about it. we went out there and had two notices of violation that we had written over the last couple of years and we followed up on that. that will be scheduled for a dir

update on dbi's notice of violation (nov) procedures, including follow up. is there any additional public comment on item 4? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are now on item five. >> good morning, commissioners. ed sweeney. director of inspection services. i will give you a brief overview of the complaints, what generally happens to them. if i can get it up on the screen. all the complaints, of course, start as a complaint. they can be landlord-tenant, such as the heat issue. it can be neighbor versus neighbor. neighborhood organizations. some people actually self- report building code issues on themselves. there is an emergency call out from police and fire that we get once or twice a week. when a complaint comes in, it is put on a standard form. as i said earlier, the standard form goes to one senior building inspector, housing inspector that is responsible for prioritizing and insuring the correct person does the inspections in a timely manner. there is also systematic enforcement. that would be the routine housing inspections, the boiler program

item nine, directors report. 9a, update on dbi's finances. >> pamela levin. there is not any real remarkable difference between our projection from last month to this month. the revenues come in strongly. primarily, the revenues are in charge for services, but there are the licenses -- the apartment licenses and hotel licenses that come in with the property tax have come in a little stronger than we expected. and we are still showing savings in several areas of expenditures and ending up with a year-end balance similar to last year -- i mean last month. i will be happy to answer any questions. commissioner murphy: have we brought back any new people in the last 30 days? >> we have brought back one payroll per cent, but the mayor's office has released the rest of our requisitions except for the housing inspector positions, so we will be posting those positions up on our website, and those are mostly clerical positions at this point. we are in the process of hiring could we will mechanical engineers. they did interview for that position on monday, and i believe

>> good evening, commissioners, joe duffy, dbi. the department would like to keep the penalty of nine times because the notice of violation was given in 2007 and we did not to permit until 2011. we did quite a bit of work on the notice of violation that started off with building inspection, and the second notice of violation was issued, so there would have been a lot of administrative work by staff. i noticed that the building inspector, can gonzales, wrote that the windows were 3 foot by 3 foot at the front of the building and some deterioration of exterior stucco finish, 3 foot by 6 feet. it was causing a hazard by the building permit application. that was in 2007. we finally got the building permit approval in may, 2011. so we would like to keep that ton a day. commissioner fung: -- we would like to keep that penalty. icommissioner fung: do you consider that for window replacement or the minor repair to the plaster that requires a permit? >> it appears that it is for both. the wording on the permit says the windows installed in

we have indeed 3 notices that dbi has identified issues for the building. there is the possibility to connect other data and have an action on that because i do believe we need to stand stronger and help prevent that people are being displaced because of economically rundown buildings and other people being able to just move in and the highest bidder gets the prize. i am not specifically speaking about you. i am speaking policy here, so do not be offended by what i am saying. in your case, this is something that is of concern to us as commissioners, and that is called displacement where we have rules for tenants. we do not have rules for smaller merchants, in addition to the point which commissioner olague mentioned, which is looking at neighborhood protection to preserve the health and mix of those services, which serve the neighborhood. we had that discussion with the north -- the north beach neighbors all the time, and i do think this area might warrant a special area study or a neighborhood sketch plan, by which we can figure out what changes are desira

dbi filed a notice on the project, because apparently the previous owner had started work based on an interior model permits and it was demolished. that was back in 2004. we had an extensive discussion with dbi and received documentation that it is not illegal to proceed in alterations. since the new owners purchased the building, they decided to withdraw the alteration permit and file for a demolition permit just to be forthright about what is actually going to happen here. the building as it stands now cannot be repaired and replaced. they filed their permits and a new construction permits. i will be happy to answer any questions you may have. commissioner moore: thank you for that answer. i think it really gets to the quarter. well i normally would -- while i would normally hesitate to permit a demolition, it seems to be the best and most expedient way to get a family home in here. i do not find anything extraordinary about what is in front of us. neither the deck or the windows are unusual. having said that, the only thing i would question is if this building is outfitted for daka

we had a permit which was still in dbi, but our involvement really was for the foundation work. we did inspections on that, and then on march 12, we got called out by the fire department on the emergency response for the roof, which was to be demolished, actually collapsed. i am not sure how it collapsed, but it collapsed. i believe there were people working there, but no one got injured. that would have been demo-ed anyway, though that was maybe not the way for it to come down. there was a report and correction notice issued to clear up the damaged lumber that had fallen in to secure the property walls -- had fallen and to secure the property walls. there have been complaints. i think there is one correction on what i have heard so far, it is that the building department has not issued a violation notice. it is a correction notice. there is a difference. our attention was drawn to the fact that there was something on 1150 page street, which became apparent after the collapse. i went there myself, and there was a strip of siding that is not there now. all i have to do is acknowl

so when your client went down to dbi and spoke with them, that would be between 4-5 and 5-24. or is that after 5-24? >> i don't know. >> to the best of my knowledge, it was after. i don't even recall the second notice. vice president garcia: so your testimony would be as far as you know, you only got one notice of violation. >> that is right. vice president garcia: okay, thank you. commissioner fung: you want a motion? vice president garcia: please. commissioner hwang: my inclination is more along the lines of commissioner fung, because of all the work the department went through and the two notices of violation. i am inclined to uphold the department. commissioner fung: i move to overrule the department and reduce the penalty to five times. based on that the work partially is fairly minor, but the fact that multiple notice of violations were issued and the administrative effort to do those require some compensation. commissioner peterson: i wonder if i could not add that the appellant testified that he thought the matter was debated in 2007. -- that the matter was abated in 2

i know our dbi director is here. fire, police. our dem as well have all been a part of looking at so many programs that we have been able to put together for the effort to make ourselves resilience and to pay attention to the newer area of science beyond response, and that is to help our city and region recover quickly. we know what our role is in terms of the u.s. economy and world economy. as all of you know, we take seismic safety seriously in san francisco. we have been working on so many different programs. our office of emergency management, fire department, first responders all have been preparing for the big one for so long. and we know that the big one is about to come. the percentages increase, as you have informed us. many of you, in your expertise, a 65% chance that in the next 25 years, is what is being predicted. working closely with the fire department, certainly, we have a close relationship with chief white. now i can also reflect with you a strong relationship with a new police chief. who could have known that ju

as best i can tell, it is the equivalent of merging planning and dbi in san diego. these things in many cities, and san diego is one where these organizations go back and forth. a few years, they will be one way, and then there will be a change, and it will be the other way. it is not clear how much of their long-range planning function will survive. i know that the director of that apartment was let go as part of this process, as part of the murder, so -- but it is an indication in some cities where this is happening -- several years ago, you may recall the city of cincinnati entirely eliminated their planning department. that has since been restarted. chicago eliminated their long- range planning function a few years ago as well. so these things are moving targets somewhat. cities often reorganize these functions in many different ways, but i thought it was interesting that san diego was one, the first california city i have seen in a while where it happened. the first large city where i have seen it happen. i just thought that was interesting and wanted to bring

vice president garcia: the notice, dbi, or would that be planning? >> i do not know the answer to that. vice president garcia: thank you. commissioner fung: mr. duffy, the foundation permit, the foundation work got a separate permit versus an addendum? excuse me. >> 1130 page street, i am not sure why they applied for that. they must have wanted to get going on some of the existing building and the new foundation. our department issued that permit. since that permit got issued, and since that day and up with1138 page -- with 1138 page street, we have changed our policy on that. it did show a new foundation. i am not saying that was right or wrong, but we are not going to give up a permit any more. -- anymore. the structure will upgrade permit was revoked because it actually, on the plan, it showed the new addition, which, obviously, you cannot build on that type of permits, because it has to go through the main permit, which would have required 311 notification. there was work on that permit that was not properly approved by different city department

-- was life issues and have reworked -- how we worked with light issues, whether it was with dpw or dbi issues, code violations or graffiti issues. san francisco has passed laws regarding these issues, including not only taxis parking in residential neighborhoods, and businesses being run out of homes with fleets of cars and trucks, but also dealing with graffiti. people that have pulled dealing permits and let them expire. we live with the ramifications. i know this is a big issue. i have been living here for 18 years. one of the things is, the grass is overgrown, you have a job car parked in your driveway, it brings the property value down. it does, but it is also the aesthetic value of where we live. it is the responsibility of our neighbors to have these issues taking care of. what we're looking for is enforcement, not only through building a station, but through dpw. ed riskin knows well what we're talking about. the third issue is parks. i want to qualify my statement about parks to say that we were given a beautiful park on naples between geneva and rock avenue. the first permane

chief building inspector dan lowery, dbi staff that contributed to the investigation of the most recent fire on june 2. also, the collaboration of our department with other departments staff to make, not only more efficient city with the services we provide, but also paying attention to the health, safety, and welfare of the community of san francisco. that is all. thank you. >> is there pu

it was whether by charter, dbi was only allowed to have two deputy directors. >> that has been taken with the city attorney. the position for the code enforcement deputy director was a hired position, and we tx-ed a higher position down for administrative services director. those were actually budgeted at higher positions. we brought them down to a lower position so we would have a consistent management staff. supervisor chu: just the last question, what is the long-term plan for the interim director currently? >> we will choose a permanent deputy director -- right -- for both the positions. one is acting in from right now, and one is actually vacant. -- what is acting interim right now, and what is actually vacant. supervisor chu: thank you. if there are no further questions and given that there is agreement with the budget analyst recommendations, we can take those cuts without objection. thank you. next department is the planning department. >> good morning, supervisors. we have been working with the budget analyst office all weekend. we are also in agreement. i believe the number

formally the differdeputy direcr of dbi was the speaker. he expects the big one to be close. the most of the damage will occur on old concrete buildings. parkmerced has 11 hours with load bearing walls of concrete. they are very vulnerable for earthquake. i think the whole project is done from the wrong end. if they need to demolish something, demolish from the earthquake safety point of the. -- point of view. the towers, not the garden apartments, provide a wonderful quality of life. the project and the eir denies there are problems with the existing tower. a second project is that -- supervisor mar: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker, please. >> i have lived in parkmerced for 38 years with my husband. we happen to like it very much there. i will make this very short. we have a lot of respect for the management. we find that they have been very honest with us. they are really trying hard. they have really put in a lot of effort into keeping our place clean. i know not everybody agrees with this, but i walk the property every day and i see a lot. i want to thank the

>> i do not know what exactly the notice from ddi -- dbi would be at issuance for this type of permit. vice president garcia: i hate to ask the permit holder. it is like asking tobacco companies its cigarettes are dangerous. do you know if there is any neighborhood opposition? i know your answer will be of course not. >> i do not know. we prepared the neighborhood map. we are prepared to do a 311. >> i think an option available to the board would be to uphold the denial but make findings is only on the basis that section 311 notice has not been done, and make clear the permit holder is authorized. the one-year bar does not apply. he can apply tomorrow for the permit. if we were to issue this permit now, it would not become compliant. commissioner hwang: it is not ok given that the idea is to clear it up and clean it up. let us do it right. >> if i apply for another permit, do i have to pay all the permit fees again? [laughter] >> would planning have discretion to waive the fees in the unique circumstances of this case? i do not think the board has jurisdiction over planning zone fees.