Announcement. Welcome to the Building Inspection Commission for december 18, 2019. Happy holidays. I am Vice President filling in for president mccarthy who is away dealing with a family matter. I spoke to him this morning, and as i will get to later, this is the last meeting for many of us, and he has some he asked me to pass along greetings, and i will when i get to that matter. I would like to thank the Department Staff who have been and still are attending the California Building officials Training Classes this week. Every year our Staff Members almost all of them are required to take classes and be up to speed on current code and issues in the building industry, and our staff attends these trainings at least once a year to refresh and enhance Technical Skills to continue to provide excellent customer service. Everyone in the city benefits from these continuing education opportunities. Our opportunities that we on this commission enthusiastically support and encourage. It is important to stay up to speed because so many changes happen on a daily basis here in this industry. Thank you to david letta of plumbing inspection who assisted a customer in resolving an issue with a sewer line. That is an issue for many as the rains come. We are in the final months of quarter four of 2019. It is time for the staff, supervisors and deputy directors to send in nominations for employee of the year. Those who have performed outstanding service, please email nominations to john patrick murray, all separated with periods at sfgovtv. Or to patty lee at sfgov. Org to select quarter four winner. President mccarthy will announce this at the january 2020 meeting. Finally, as i was saying before, if i get teary, i will talk through it. This is my final Building Inspection Commission meeting. I would like to express my appreciation to the director. We worked together for many, many years and done Amazing Things in this department. I also want to express my appreciation and warmth to all my commissioners, many of whom we have sat on this commission together, done really important things. In my now more than 20 years of serving on this commission, i know, time flies. I continued to be impressed with the dedication, hard work and professionalism of everyone working here. They perform vitalling Safety Professional Services every day of the year, and our city and communities benefit tremendously from their commitment. New commissioners will be taking seats in january, i believe a lot of us will be leaving. I wish each and every one offellow commissioners every possible success with the boroversight responsibilities you will be assuming outside of this commission and the folks remaining on this commission. I also want to express my appreciation to bill strahan, he has been our communication director at d. B. I. For 13 years, i believe, not an easy task. I am sure whenever your phone rings and it is the newspaper your heart beat goes up. Mine certainly does. Thank you so much for representing our department and our commission and our city to carry the message out to the public. There are so many wonderful staff folks, deputy directors, and especially the secretary who actually i have said this. She actually runs the department. No, i dont, dont get me in trouble. She certainly makes sure we are dealing with the issues that come before us and Carry Forward ideas. Members of the public present, someone, our friend, jerry dratler, we need to commit do to keeping our department accountable to the city. We are here to serve, to make sure that when projects come before us and folks building them need our help that we are here to serve, and we need to do it in an equitable, fair, even way, consistent and transparent. One of the things i want to put on record in public. I have been obsessed about the permit tracking system for the last actually 15 years. Who is counting . I am still committed to making sure that the point of it, which is equitable, transparent delivery of service and maintenance of data so that not only those doing the work but those in our city who want access to it can find it and know what is happening here. We need to be trusted by our city. I think we are getting there. It is one of the reasons i have been committed to that. I want to thank you. I want to thank the commissioners for serving. This is sometimes not an exciting commission, but it is so important the things we do here. I value having been here. I feel honored to have been able to work with all of you to Carry Forward this message, and i look forward to the next steps. I will probably come back but i will be out there. Just warning you. I think that is it for now. Thank you very much. I am sorry. When i was talking to president mccarthy, he wanted me to echo his appreciation for serving with you all. The work that we do in support of him because the presidency does require a lot more attention, and he really appreciated the support from commissioners and the commitment you all have to our city. He will be back. He is away with family. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment on the president s announcement . Seeing none the next item. Go ahead. Department of building inspection. It is my honor to work with you for the last i worked with the city 30 years, 23 years in the department of building inspection. In 2012, you know, you appointed me as inspection director. We have a lots of charge with all of the commissioner support. I think we dont make that many calls. I cannot guarantee you to make sure it works, but i would like to stay as long as i can to make sure that thing will run. Hopefully we have an alternative way. I am not a computer expert. I have the department of technology and controller to help me. There is a problem with the consultant. Fortunately they dont cooperate with us. That is why we have trouble right now. Hopefully, once we move to the new building, then we will sit down to see how to move forward. You are welcome to come back to guide us. We worked together for so long. All of the commission helped me, you know, to do my work, you know. Hopefully in the future, our department will be improved, but i feel since 2012, our department is moving forward with Strategic Plan and everything, but, of course, a lots of areas to improve. Maybe now is the time you have a second eye to look at how we can do better and call me anytime and we can Work Together and the other commissioners to help me to see what we can do, you know, or the other president mccarthy can tell me. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner walker very clearly stated the feelings that i share when she called out all of the same people that, you know, have made my service, you know, short that it is compared to hers, one of the most wonderful experiences i could have asked for. Not only thanking the staff, my colleagues, as she pointed out, the public who show up regularly represented by mr. D ratler today. For their reminders, the information they give and passion they bring. These are all critical things that helped us to try to do the best job we can, and i know you will continue to be here to help on that. As she said, we will probably be out there doing the same thing. Obviously, i would also like to thank mayor breed, wh who as president of the board did my original appointment and reappointed me and gave me this opportunity. Really what i wanted to focus on today was really thanking debra walker for the most Extraordinary Service to have given this length of time with such passion, such commitment, such dedication really is the model that i think we all look to in trying to see how we can best serve our city so if we can, you know, i am sorry we dont have one, water or whatever to toast her to thank her for her absolutely Extraordinary Service. Where is the camera . There we go. Thank you. Commissioner walker, i count you as one of my friends. I know you were appointed by the board of supervisors and i was appointed by the mayors office. We see each other supporting different candidates. I know you remember that. We remained friendly and i appreciate that, and when you came back on the commission, i got to say you helped stabilize this commission. I will take you back 15 years. You remember how difficult it was, but when you came back on, i really appreciated what you did. You were a partner in getting the department to where it is today. I thank you for that. One more. Debra, as you know, i am not a great public speaker. We talked about this. Them of an engineer, though. What i want to comment on is maybe a bit specific, but i have found when we have the aab meetings and we are stuck between a rock and hard place, which way do we go . I am amazed how you come up with a third way to save the day. I appreciate that. It goes well beyond my capacity to understanding issues. You understand them quite well, and i want to acknowledge that and commend you for that, and you will be missed. Thank you. I appreciate that. That really makes me cry. Next item. Thank you for your comments. We are going to bring our commissioners back next month for some comments. Next is item 4. Commissioners questions and matters. A sorry. Item three. General Public Comment. I apologize. We will take Public Comment on matters not part of this agenda. I would like to thank all commissioners for service. [ inaudible ] i am jerry dratler. [ inaudible ] the revocation to the board of appeals. It was heard on december 4th. I will not read d. B. I. s responses. Question one. How many violations were Public Safety issues . This was asked repeatedly. Why did d. B. I. Revoke the permits versus suspend . Question three. Building permits were revoked on same day the two novs were issued. Why was there no 30day period before they were revoked. Last question. Did the Building Code violations at 3426 22nd street rise to the level of severity of past permit revocation cases . Moving to 25 17th avenue. On november 18th. I submitted a complaint that Building Permits be revoked due to numerous violations which resulted in the house occupying two properties for las last yea. They closed it on november 27th stating the outstanding issues had been addressed when they had not been. The very same day, november 22, the project manager showed up at d. B. I. And you approved a 300,000 remodel permit overthecounter. He approved the permit denied by two d. B. I. Employees. First over counter denial occurred on november 19th. You have a copy of a december memo inquiring into the unusual set of events. The second employee who does not work in the area denied the permit and issued comments for the whole description on the december 12th copy of the permit. You have a copy. As of december 17, 2019, the second denial of comments have been removed for pts. This is a plug forgetting acella working. You have the facts. It is up to the Inspection Commission to decide if Senior Management acted correctly and if policy changes should be made and internal controls over permit revocations and overthecounter permit approvals need to be approved. Thank you very much. Have a great holiday. Thank you. This will be passed along. Any additional Public Comment . Seeing none. Item four. Commissioners questions and matters. A. Inquiries to staff. At this time commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies and practices and procedures, which are of interest to the commission. I believe that the 9 00 a. M. Meeting time is not most equitable time to have the Building Inspection Commission. I want to know what we can do to consider having it at a different time. The planning being the afternoon. The overwhelming majority of my generation can make meetings in the afternoon. We have complicated, frustrating generational land use issues that are coming up to a boil in the city, and to be frank, i would like to give our citizens the biggest opportunity to attend and comment. That said, i have no idea what to do past that. Is there a mechanism for that . You are doing that. That will be an agenda item to discuss. We can put it on the agenda for next month. Any other commissioners . I would love, since i am not going to be here to bring it up later, i think it would be good to in the tenancy have that voice be heard. We have a robust Code Enforcement outreach to work with nonprofits from the landlord and tenant side to resolve issues so tenancy is not disrupted in the process of Code Enforcement, and i would love to have the commission discuss the program. The goals, how to do better at reaching it. There is a lot of construction that involves older rent control buildings in general, and i think it would be really good to get a presentation from all of those partners about the work and how they feel they are doing and maybe what is needed. I would suggest that. Clearly it would be good to agendize updates as much as possible in our move into the new building and the appropriate Business Practices and tracking systems. You know, our permit tracking system process as we move so that the commission is involved with it. I would just leave that as markers. I think all of these things help to some of the issues we deal with constantly about keeping track of projects, access to the data. It is good it is happening now in terms of the building. Better updates. That is what i would suggest for the agenda. Hopefully, somebody can approve it when i am not here. Thank you. Next item 4b future meetings and agendas. At this time the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and or derm those items that could be placed on the agenda. The Committee Appointments for the commissioners comes up so we have the Litigation Committee, Appointments Committee that you factor that into the new group of folks coming in and make sure we dont lose track of that. We definitely will and february we will vote on Committee Members at the february meeting. Is the litigation in january . There is one scheduled in january. It would be something to consider. Maybe we have to move it up. I didnt think about that. The election of officers. I know but it is important because litigation is an Important Committee to not skip. Maybe you have to talk about doing that in january when we have new people in. Maybe talk about how that works. That is a good idea. I will follow up on that. Is there any further commissioner comments . Jim. Is anybody who has been to these knows, one of my deepest concerns is that we build a close relationship with our colleagues and the planning commission, and i know that in response to prior request to have some additional joint sessions that president mccarthy is working with president melgar to do so, and just this one last time i would like to have the marker down to be sure that such a session occurs, and, hopefully, that we almost formalize it to either semi annual calendared event. I believe that is a critical piece of making our reach effective, coordinated, and certainly goes in step with our now sharing physical facilities together. To that the only thing i would add, mr. Dratler brought up a couple specific cases. While the direction of the joint session that i proposed was to have a comprehensive evaluation of all of the kind of problem child cases to understand how they have been resolved, if they are still unresolved or not, i do feel that the specifics of the two cases that mr. Dratler has brought forward now several times do warrant to be calendared and to have a specific response. I would urge that it get on an agenda early in the new term. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment on item 4a and b . Seeing none the next item is item 5. Directors report. 5a. Update on d. B. I. s finances. Good morning, commissioners. Deputy director for the department of building inspection. Before you is the november 2019 Financial Report providing revenues and expenditures for the first drive months july through november 2019. I will go over the highlights and they sound familiar. I have been saying the same thing every month. Revenues are 28. 7 million compared to 29. 3 million last year. Pretty much revenues are pretty much stable. A slight decrease is due not because of lower collection from permits but because last year at this time the Controllers Office had entered interest. Expensedyters 27. 2 reflecting an increase in salary that went up this work in salaries and work orders that is where you see th increase. We have an increase in expenditures from the cb o. They are turning in invoices earlier. Other than that we are remaining on the right path. Our revenues are stable. We are always keeping spending within our budget, and i am happy to answer any questions. Commissioners. Seeing none. Thank you for being consistent. That is what we aim at. 5b. Update on proposed or recently enacted state or local legislation. Good morning, bill strong legislative and public affairs. As you know, we completed the trcode revocation and adoption. That means come january 1, we will have a new set of codes for the next three years. That part is on the correct path. We have also taken a look at supervisor peskins modifications for the housing code for heat improvements to make sure tenants are getting the heat that is required legally. That was passed at the board yesterday. It will go into effect in the next 30days. I guess the only other item that i wanted to mention was on the state Energy Commission having passed unanimously the recommendations on a number of cities around california are making to switch away from gas appliances and to have all electric. As you know, berkeley and a few other municipalities have voted for New Buildings to do that. San francisco is actually passing an ordinance on municipal buildings. It was very clear from the public testimony at the board a lot of people are ready for addressing the carbon and climate situation by stepping away from gas. How that will play out with building remains to be seen, but as we know we have a lot of homes in San Francisco using mixed fuels. I think that is something that will be engaged with for some time to come. Other than that, i think if you have any questions, i am happy to take them. Construction has to be gas . Well, that is what they are proposed at the state level. In some municipalities like berkeley the city Council Passed the ordinance already. It is a matter of implementation. I think it is at least a year away before they start implementing it. That is new construction . On new construction, right. Nobody addressed the retrofitting that will also be an issue. Thank you. We will be gone, bill. Next item 5c. Update on major projects. Good morning. Department of building inspection. Compared to last reporting period is increase 3. 6 . I think it is due to if new code changes and also somebody talking about indexing of the planning, but that is major thing is the code change to meet the permit. Any questions . Okay. 5d. Update on Code Enforcement. Good morning, commissioners. Ed see sweeney. 5338 Building Inspections performed. Complaints 413. Complaints with the first notice violation 51. Complaints received without no nov253. Beta complaints 34. Second notice of violations 38. Housing inspections performed 714. Complaints received 292. Complaint responses within 24 to 72 hours 284. Complaints with notice of violations issued 112. Beta complaints 261. Number of cases cents to director hearing 30. Routine inspection 63. Code enforcement cases 165 to director. Abatements issued 40. Cases under advisement 13. Cases abatessed 179. Code enforcement 321. Number of cases referred to bic Litigation Committee two. We didnt send anything to city attorney. Code enforcement outreach total 16,663 reached out to. Counseling 1050. Community program 2502. Cases resolved 313. These are the numbers for november. Thank you n. Public comment on the directors report. Seeing none. Item 6. Review approval of the minutes of the regular meeting november 20, 2019. Move to approve. Second. Motion and second. Any Public Comment on the minutes . Are all commissioners in favor . Any opposed. Okay. The minutes approved. 7. Discussion and possible action on the annual performance evaluation for the director. Continued from the october 16, 2019 meeting. Any Public Comment . Seeing none. Is there a motion to go to closed session . Moved to go to closed second. Second. Motion and second. All commissioners in favor. Aye. We are in closed session at 10 10 a. M. We will we are ready to reconvene. This is the Building Inspection Commission continuing our closed session item number 7. This item d reconvene in open session to vote on whether to disclose any our all discussions held in closed discussion. I move that we do not disclose. Second. There is a motion and second to not disclose the items in closed session. Any Public Comment . No. All commissioners in favor, aye. Next is item 8 adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn . Move. Second. All in favor. Aye. We are now adjourned at 11 0. A way of life in San Francisco. When the next major quake hits, the city hopes a new law requiring seismic upgrades to five story buildings will help keep more residents safe and sound. Tell me a little about the soft Story Program. What is it . Its a program the mayor signed into law about a year and a half ago and the whole idea behind it was to help homeowners strengthen buildings so that they would not collapse. Did you the soft Story Program apply to all buildings or building that were built in a certain time frame . It only applies to buildings built in the time frame of 1978 and earlier. Its aimed at wood framed buildings that are three or more stories and five or more units. But the openings at the garage level and the street level arent supported in many buildings. And without the support during a major earthquake, they are expected to pancake and flatten ~. Many of the buildings in this program are under rent control so its to everybodys advantage to do the work and make sure they protect their investment and their tenant. Notices have gone out to more than 6,000 owners of potentially atrisk properties but fewer than onethird have responded and thousands might miss an important deadline in september to tell the city what they plan to do. Lets talk worst case scenario. What happens in a collapse . Buildings have the tendency of rolling over. The first soft story walls lean over and the building collapse. In an earthquake the building is a total loss. Can you describe what kind of strengthening is involved in the retrofit . One of the basic concepts, you want to think of this building kind of like rubber band and the upper three floor are very rigid box and the garage is a very flexible element. In an earthquake the garage will have a tendency to rollover. You have to rubber band analogy that the first floor is a very tough but flexible rubber band such that you never drive force he to the upper floors. Where all your damage goes into controlled element like plywood or steel frame. So, here we are actually inside of a soft story building. Can we talk a little about what kinds of repairs Property Owners might expect . Its a very simple process. We deliberately tried to keep it that way. So, whats involved is plywood, which when you install it and make a wall as we have done here already, then you cover it with this gypsum material. This adds some flexibility so that during the earthquake youll get movement but not collapse. And that gets strengthened even more when we go over to the steel frame to support the upper floor. So, potentially the wood and the steel it sounds like a fairly straightforward process takes your odds of collapse from one in 4 to one in 30 . Thats exactly right. Thats why were hoping that people will move quickly and make this happen. Great. Lets take a look. So, lets talk steel frames. Tell me what we have going on here. Well, we have a steel frame here. There are two of these and they go up to the lower floor and there is a beam that go across, basically a box that is much stiffer and stronger. ~ goes so that during the earthquake the upper floor will not collapse down on this story. It can be done in about two weeks time. Voila, youre done. Easy. For more information on how to get your building earthquake ready, this is one place you can always count on to give you what you had before and remind you of what your San Francisco history used to be. We hear that all the time, people bring their kids here and their grandparents brought them here and down the line. Even though people move away, whenever they come back to the city, they make it here. And they tell us that. Youre going to get something made fresh, made by hand and made with quality products and something thats very, very good. The legacy bars and restaurants was something that was begun by San Francisco simply to recognize and draw attention to the establishments. It really provides for San Franciscos unique character. And that morphed into a request that we work with the city to develop a legacy business registration. Im Michael Cirocco and the owner of an area bakery. The bakery started in 191. My grandfather came over from italy and opened it up then. It is a small operation. Its not big. So everything is kind of quality that way. So i see every piece and cut every piece that comes in and out of that oven. Im leslie ciroccomitchell, a fourth generation baker here with my family. So we get up pretty early in the morning. I usually start baking around 5 00. And then you just start doing rounds of dough. Loaves. My mom and sister basically handle the front and then i have my nephew james helps and then my two daughters and my wife come in and we actually do the baking. After that, my mom and my sister stay and sell the product, retail it. You know, i dont really think about it. But then when i sometimes when i go places and i look and see places put up, oh this is our 50th anniversary and everything and weve been over 100 and that is when it kind of hits me. You know, that geez, weve been here a long time. [applause] a lot of people might ask why our legacy business is important. We all have our own stories to tell about our ancestry. Our lineage and ill use one example of tommys joint. Tommys joint is a place that my husband went to as a child and hes a fourth generation san franciscan. Its a place we can still go to today with our children or grandchildren and share the stories of what was San Francisco like back in the 1950s. Im the general manager at tommys joint. People mostly recognize tommys joint for its murals on the outside of the building. Very bright blue. You drive down and see what it is. They know the building. Tommys is a San Francisco hoffa, which is a germanstyle presenting food. We have five different carved meats and we carve it by hand at the station. You prefer it to be carved whether you like your brisket fatty or want it lean. You want your pastrami to be very lean. You can say i want that piece of corn beef and want it cut, you know, very thick and i want it with some sauerkraut. Tell the guys how you want to prepare it and they will do it right in front of you. San franciscos a place thats changing restaurants, except for tommys joint. Tommys joint has been the same since it opened and that is important. San francisco in general that we dont lose a grip of what San Franciscos came from. Tommys is a place that youll always recognize whenever you lock in the door. Youll see the same staff, the same bartender and have the same meal and that is great. Thats important. The service that San Francisco heritage offers to the legacy businesses is to help them with that application process, to make sure that they really recognize about them what it is that makes them so special here in San Francisco. So well help them with that application process if, in fact, the board of supervisors does recognize them as a legacy business, then that does entitle them to certain financial benefits from the city of San Francisco. But i say really, more importantly, it really brings them public recognition that this is a business in San Francisco that has history and that is unique to San Francisco. It started in june of 1953. And we make everything from scratch. Everything. We started a you we started a off with 12 flavors and mango fruits from the philippines and then started trying them one by one and the family had a whole new clientele. The business really boomed after that. I think that the flavors we make reflect the diversity of San Francisco. We were really surprised about the legacy project but we were thrilled to be a part of it. Businesses come and go in the city. Pretty tough for businesss to stay here because it is so expensive and theres so much competition. So for us who have been here all these years and still be popular and to be recognized by the city has been really a huge honor. We got a phone call from a woman who was 91 and she wanted to know if the mitchells still owned it and she was so happy that we were still involved, still the owners. She was our customer in 1953. And she still comes in. But she was just making sure that we were still around and it just makes us feel, you know, very proud that were carrying on our fathers legacy. And that we mean so much to so many people. It provides a perspective. And i think if you only looked at it in the here and now, youre missing the context. For me, legacy businesses, legacy bars and restaurants are really about setting the context for how we come to be where we are today. I just think its part of San Francisco. People like to see familiar stuff. At least i know i do. In the 1950s, you could see a picture of tommys joint and looks exactly the same. We havent change add thing. I remember one lady saying, you know, ive been eating this ice cream since before i was born. And i thought, wow we have, too. Clerk i would like to remind members of the public to please silence your mobile devices that may sound off during these proceedings, and when speaking before the commission, do state your name for the record. Id like to take roll at this time. [roll call] clerk commissioners, first on your agenda is general Public Comment. I have no speaker cards. Wouldny