Good morning, today is wednesday , september 18th, 2019. This is a regular meeting of the abatement appeals board. I would like to remind everyone to turn of all electronic devices. The first item on the agenda is roll call. [roll call] we have a quorum. The next item is item be. The oath where are part all parties giving testimony please raise your right hand and stand. Do you swear the testimony were about to give is a truth to the best of your knowledge . Thank you, you maybe seated. For information his, we want to state the department will present its case first then the appellant. Each individual has seven minutes to present their case. Next there will be Public Comment. The members have three minutes each. Lastly there is rebuttal time of three minutes. The next item is item see, approval of minutes great discussion and possible action to adopt the minutes for the meeting held on august 21st, 2019. Move to approve. We have a motion and a second is there any Public Comment on the minutes . Seeing none, are all commissioners in favor . Aye. Any opposed . The minutes are approved. Our next item is item d. , new appeal order of abatement. Case number 6864, 232 talbert street. Action request by the appellant for more time to complete the work. Please come forward. Good morning, commissioners. I am the chief Housing Inspector for the last ten or so years, our cases have been presented by myself or rosemary, the former chief Housing Inspector, but we do have inspector larry who has done an excellent job managing our district in the excelsior. He has recently been promoted to senior Housing Inspector. Good morning, im jim lowery. Im acting senior Housing Inspector. The subject property today is located at 232 talbert street. The notice of violation was issued on october 25th, 2018. The subject of the notice of violation was an unsafe interior staircase going from the second floor to the garage, it is secondary to the main staircase which is at the front of the house. It is a bungalow style home with a winding exterior staircase on the front. I have some pictures. The staircase is a bad angle. The tread depth is not correct. The picture is in your packets. I am referring to the picture that is labelled noncompliant staircase showing angle and existing railings, it is dated october 25th, 2018. The second picture i have, which is also in your packet, is a picture of the staircase with a tape measure showing the tread depth, which is certainly less than ten and a half inches. If you look at it from the top, you will see theres just slightly more than 2 inches for someone to land their foot on that step. Finally, on september 5th, 2019 at a subsequent inspection, the staircase was removed completely so it is no longer there. There were two permits pulled. The first was to repair stairs inside from the upper unit to the garage to correct the notice of violation, that permit was issued on march 8th, 2019. Then there was a second permit to remove connecting stairs from upper units to garage to comply with the n. O. V. There were some other items that were on the permit that was filed june 19th, 2019. Our pictures are showing that we had some technical difficulties. Sorry. Okay, so this is the staircase. That is the bottom. You can see theres no rail on the outside of that staircase, but a rail on the wall that is not compliant with any code. This was rebuilt at some point, as you can see. This is the staircase removed at the subsequent inspection. And then here is the picture of the stair with the tape measure so you can see that the tread depth is not correct, and as i said, theres barely over 2 inches to land a foot as you come down. Excuse me, we have a question hi, you said a minute ago there was a second permit pulled for removal of the stair. It was filed, it was not issued. Okay. Thank you. Is the home tenant occupied . Yes. What is the original staircase . The original staircase was in the front of the home on the outside to get to the front door , and this is the staircase which is typical of these homes. It goes from the second story down to the garage and interior staircase. Was there an original one that they replaced . This obviously has been replaced. It looks like new construction. I dont know when this construction was done or when that original staircase was removed. It does not look original. Commissioner walker . Yeah, it looks to me that there was a legalized unit on the ground floor added to this. It kind of looks like an afterthought, is what i am saying. The staircase in the back was added. You are saying that is normal for houses to have a staircase down . Yes. Is this because its a two unit and we inspect these on a routine basis . This was based on a complaint that came from the tenant. I see. That complaint was received by us. It seems like it would have to also be fire rated to separate the garage. I dont know, but typically these staircases, when originally built, were part of the original construction. Whatever code was in effect at that time was the code that we would enforce, however, obviously this one has been altered or rebuilt at some point so we are saying that they first got a repair permit, they didnt repair it, they filed for removal, but it wasnt issued, and they removed it anyway. Thats correct. And now that theyve removed it, they are subject to new standards, not repair. That is correct. And we asked them to file a permit with two sets of plans to rectify this. Okay, and the lower level unit, is that a legal unit . Our reports said two units. When the owner came in initially to discuss this case, he had a piece of paper that said it was a two unit building. It is not clear if there was ever a single change of occupancy from a singlefamily home. Okay, well, it probably is worth checking the records if it has ever been legalized and if it isnt, obviously we want as much housing as possible, but we want to make sure it is done safely and properly. Absolutely. This case is sort of indicating that there may be some question as to whether things are always done with permit and to correct standards. I would really appreciate you are looking into that. Okay. Thank you. So the department is recommending we have found that the condition of the existing staircase represents a life has it to the occupants of the building. A life hazard to the occupants of the building. The department is recommending the order be upheld and all costs incurred by the department be assessed. Thank you. Thank you. The public the appellant can come forward. Good morning. I just want to make a correction the owner of record i am the owner, along with my wife. I just wanted to find out the owner of record and appellant on this notice of meeting, the address is wrong. Thank you, we will note that. Thank you. I bought the building, my wife and i bought the building in 1997, and this structure, the existing structure was there, and according to the three r. Report, it was a two tenant unit we stayed there for three years with our children and then we moved out to another part of the city and rented it out for the last so many years. There were tenants living there, low income housing. The stairs the mr. Larry pointed out was already there. There was no original stairs that i know of, so i just wanted to present to you that i am here to comply with the law and i want to do the right thing to be able to fix it and legalize it. I just want the consideration of the board to reduce the charges because we just had my daughter s wedding, it was a pretty expensive affair. Im kind of low on my finances. If there is any consideration given to me to be able to deal with this, i will be able to work with the Housing Inspector and other departments to be able to comply and make it code compliant. My contractor his is going around looking for parking. He just texted me saying he still hasnt found parking yet. Any questions, commissioners . Server, it mentioned that you owned other properties. County properties do you own . Right now i live at may the property at my other property i have been living here for the past 26 years. I am a member and minister of third baptist church. The city has been good to me. I came as an immigrant, but the church, the community, we worked very hard to be able to get to where we are. Both of my children went to the public and private schools in the city, and now they are physicians. One is a psychiatrist and one is an anaesthesiologist resident in san diego. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment . Seeing none, is there a rebuttal by the department . The department would just simply ask that it be upheld and the cost assessed. This has gone on for almost a year now. There are some other issues in the building, as well. Whatever you folks decide i think would be we will have to live with. Thank you. I have a question. Commissioner clinch had a question first. Does the code require an interior set of stairs . There is some conjecture as to whether it is a two unit building or one unit building. The owner approached planning on the permit that he has filed to remove the staircase and there were some issues there. Planning asked him to go to Records Management and pull records to the property history to see if they could come up with a conclusion to that. As an engineer, i would thank you have an exterior set of stairs with the upper unit in the bottom unit has egress through the garage or through the side door. I wouldnt think an interior stair would be needed. That is possible with the occupancy. Only one exit from each unit is required. It seems like a very simple fix to simply get the permit and get the stair removal accepted. You are correct, yes. Commissioner walker . Im just checking our permit records, and it magically went from a one family dwelling to a two family dwelling in 1995 or 1997 without any permit. I dont see how that happened. So what do we do in a situation like this . I mean, im likely to uphold the order around the stairs, but i think that this is kind of a bigger challenge that we havent gotten into, it just automatically shifts from a one family to a two family without any building inspection or anything, so i know thats not before us, but it concerns me. The Building Inspection Division can do a check and it can be an administrative permit to change the occupancy or they can require that a Building Permit be pulled to upgrade or legalize. Again, i understand our colleagues in planning are involved in this and id like to be sure that not only are we doing what we think is right from buildings perspective, but since this also does involve planning issues, that any decisions made today, any further information is correctly and properly forwarded to planning so that they can stay in the loop and be very aware of everything we are doing. Understood. Thank you. Any further comments . Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to request for six months time for me to be able to fix this. Okay. Thank you. Discussion . I think we did Public Comment rebuttal time is over. Is there a motion . I think we need Public Comment. We did Public Comment. Commissioner walker . So its hard for me to look at this without thinking about the fact that this hasnt been evaluated for the second unit, so i dont know. I would tend to want to support the order of abatement, but the solution may be more connected with the bigger view of the unit count, and inspecting what is there. So im trying to figure out if we should continue it to deal with the whole thing or support the order of abatement, upholds the order of abatement, including fees, period. Okay. Any other comments . Okay, my feelings on this are that john, you know, again, we have a situation where when we go in and we see one issue, and then we find there are potentially others, it does behoove us to make sure that we are not so narrowly focused that we also are cognizant of the implications of the other issues we discover, and that we are very aggressive on seeing that our colleagues in planning, in an instance like this, are aware of whats happening so that a correct solution to the entirety of the building can occur. I know there have been criticisms in the past where weve looked very narrowly at exactly what the complaint is, trying to stay very focused, and concern is that we havent been as aggressive about addressing bigger issues, which we have become aware of, and, you know, this is definitely a concern. So i would have to agree at this point that we uphold the order as correctly written and assess all costs. I would move that we do that and should there be any way that as this gets to planning, and it proves impossible for the owner to execute his plan in a timely way, possibly they could come back to us and we can reconsider from information we have now, it is compelling that not only was the staircase removed and a permit was filed for, but now no permit was issued. That is a serious concern. Clearly the condition was unsafe even if it was an existing condition when the owners bought the property. Feeling sympathy for a small Property Owner, especially renting to section eight low income tenants, i do feel compelled to uphold the order as correctly written and moved to assess the cost. Do we know the cost . Thank you. [indiscernible]. We have a second. Brad rusty, City Attorneys office. Two clarified the motion to make clear for the Property Owner, once a board makes its decision on this case, there is no procedure for the appellant to come back to the board and request reconsideration. Just to make clear if the motion thank you for clarifying that so in that case, i would just have to stay with the uphold and assess cost. So the motion from commissioner marsh is to uphold the order of abatement and assess the cost on the basis that it was properly issued. Correct. I believe it was seconded. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. I will do a roll call vote. [roll call] the motion carried unanimously. Our next item is item e. , general Public Comment. General Public Comment for items that are not on the event bent abatement appeals board agenda. Seeing none, item f. , adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn . Moved to adjourn. Second . Are all commissioners in favor . Aye. We are now adjourned and we will take a five or ten minute recess and reconvene as the Building Inspection Commission. Thank you. We are ready to begin. Good morning. Today is wednesday, september 18 th, 2019. This is a regular meeting of the Building Inspection Commission. I would like to remind everyone to turn off all electronic devices. The first item on the agenda is roll call. [roll call] commissioner moss is excused. We have a quorum. Our next item is item two, president s announcements. Good morning and welcome to i announcements onto timer time or 18th, 2019. If i mispronounce anybodys last name, please forgive me. Thank you to tom who spoke to a delegation from south koreas local construction Safety Center about San Francisco department of Safety Inspection to ensure the buildings in San Francisco are safe for residents and visitors. Stefan provided a great overview of d. B. I. s permit process for the Restaurant Owners and the efforts that the department has made to streamline these process these processes in the recent years. Im looking forward to seeing more feedback on that. We really need to do everything we can to keep that process as smooth and as productive as possible for these businesses so they can get their goals. Thank you to david jones from our clan review service team for taking part in the presentation on the permitting process of a. D. U. S with a small Property Owner institute. Thank you for your reference to educate stakeholders on this important program. Id like to commend our very own commission secretary, sonia harris, received a very nice note from a longtime customer thinking for her for professional, respectful, and very Competent Service to the Building Inspection Commission. Thank you, i know you are in the frontlines all the time and you get no credit. Finally, there is somebody out there who gave it to you. Thank you. [applause] thank you to matthew from the Technical Service division who received a letter stating he was very helpful in accommodating details when helping a senior customer with their Home Improvement project. Well done. Those small little thank youse are important. A letter of appreciation was also sent to mr. Shaw of plan review services for helping a customer through the process of getting parking permits. The customer said she was great and consistent with her service and was very kind to her. A big thank you to others from the central birdsall Building Permit to received a letter from a customer thanking them for resolving a difficult case regarding missing address. Thank you for that. Congratulations also to director he we who participated in another Seismic Safety Outreach Program graduation in chinatown last week where another 70 residents graduated for a five from a five day training course. That brings the total number of seismic safety ambassadors to nearly 4,000 since the Program Began in 2015, and that means we are better prepared to respond and recover quickly after the next big one. Well done on that, particularly on the 4,000 people qualified. Earlier this month, the director took part in the ribboncutting ceremony for the new chase center. Well done, director. Special thanks to you and your team for everything you did to ensure that the project was completed and ready to go on time. What an incredible achievement that was. Was it done under time or was it right on time . Right on time. I know that was monumental. It was a sprint from the minute it was approved to get it done. I know the inspectors worked really hard on their. Special thanks to all the d.