>> good morning. today's wednesday, april 17, 2024, and this is the regular meeting of bicycle coalition i'd like to ask you to mute yourself when not speaking. >> 1. call to order and roll call. vice president chavez here. >> commutes here. >> commissioner sommer here. >> commissioner williams we have quorum and commissioner shaddix is excused. >> commissioner alexander-tut is expected next for um, members of the public that are listening

in or sitting remotely the public comment call in number is. >> public comment call-in number: 415-655-0001 - access code: 2661 086 0068. press *3. a raise your hand for a specific agenda item mr. keilly press star three the web e number is 4117. >> okay. next land unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush (rah-my-toosh) ohlone (o-lon-ee) who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory.

ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> okay. thank you. >> um, next. >> 2. president's opening remarks. however, we'll skip this this item for now. >> >> comment. the bic will take public comment on matters within the commission's jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda.

(no audio). >> . thank you. >> i'm ready and i have a power point. >> oh, okay. you can um, move go ahead to begin. >> good morning. my name is jerry i'm going to speak about operational changes to increase the dbi revenue and improve the operational control permits fees on a dollar base not a building permit require the same number of inspections and it is 5 hundred and 61 dollars why not charge separating for

inspections to achieve a better matching of dbi revenue with dbi cost and number two, preschedule all dbi field inspections and charge a reinspection fee and number 3, the fully permit services is $439 an hour or $7.32 a meeting dbi can't provide service that costs $7.32 and expiring building permits need to be renewed on a one dollar admin permit and two costs dbi more than a dollar to review the plans those $1 permits should be eliminated and

number 4, dbi services like addressing scheme address changes and legalizing did unrestricted process should be not costing $1.05 how many admin permits did dbi issue in 2023-24, two excuse i'll be requesting a down load for the may 24th meeting and 6 dbi processes 3000 notice of violation annually. and the fully burdened hourly rate for dbi inspections is 4 hundred and 61 dollars an hour how many hours are in the notice of violation. and 80 percent of penalties when i looked at this below $1,500 or 3.255 hours of

an inspections time did cost of penalties is (bell ringing) highly subsidized and needs to change. thank you very much. >>. thank you. >> um, any additional public comment on in the chambers? >> seeing none, none remotely oh, there is come on up sorry apologizes. >> hi commissioner back here again, i want to say i'm someone from the press called me which is the p t s like i work in a number of jurisdictions around the bay area and they have the best system phenomenal can you find that you can finding that with the what station of a fact and find out when comments and phone numbers and want to make a

comment so people can hear dbi is good when it comes to tracking. >> thank you. >> any further public comment seeing none, item 4. >> 4. director's update [director o'riordan] >> good morning commissioners. >> i'm director o'riordan director of the bicycle coalition and yesterday dbi owe the capital planning released a report detailing our years long effort to better understand the developer plan to make sure the site of safety. in response the mayor oriented an diagnostic for the office of resilience for a program that he and the legislation for business owners to assess the condition of their

buildings the report was sent to you yesterday and keep i informed as the program develops. aye now, some of you recall last year a number of unanimous complaints and notice of violations were issued for unpermitted place in the city and in response dbi and the small business owner had small business commission at this time the mayor and the board of supervisors passed legislation creating a temporary amnesty program waving fees and penalties fees applicants need to pay local surcharges today about 45 accordance are legalized and in addition to the outreach to property owners last week dbi and planning and fire and the partnered what lilly of chinatown on a hands-on workshop

to help business and property owners complete completing the streamlined permit application the workshop helped with the application for 7 awning and hosting work shop at the end of the month here's a photo from the workshop i want to thank over the counter services margin jimmy chung for had his leadership in streamlining this process and at the workshop. >> sfgovtv can we show the photo? >> enlarge it. >> looks like we can see that. >> you can go ahead it is

showing. >> maybe should be magnified a little bit. >> (laughter.) >> um, so i also want to share that dbi manager mary wilkinson started on monday and mary please stand up and mary will working closely with um, deputy director service own both operations and strategic initiates to help us improve the processes customer service and issuance time. mary is an earthquake most recently ran the city of milwaukee her and her husband relocated for this position we or fortunate to have heron board please join me in welcoming mary in the bicycle coalition (clapping.) that that concludes any

director's report. >> thank you. >> director next have. >> 4b. update on major projects. >> appears to be a delay two webx and the screen here it comes. >> the following slides are intended to highlight the volume and variation of projects with the evaluation of $5 million or anymore filed a completed in the past month the month of march. >> we will profile a few projects in terms of they're one permit was estimated evaluation

of $5 million or more was filed with dbi that probable cause project for a tenant improvement at the case this center and valued at $11.4 million. next slide, please. so last month we issued one high valued primary for the renovation the chinatown at 1419 madison street at $42.5 million and. next slide, please. and lastly, dbi filed three high valued permit one for the completion of 28 unit building and in 2525 van ness avenue at $19 million and a retail to office conversion um, at 48 stocking to that street

$58.4 million. thank you. >> thank you. >> next, we have. >> 4d. update on proposed or recently enacted state or local legislation. >> good morning christy assistant director. there we go. >> okay. next slide, please. good morning um, first um, ordinance is um, the ordinance you considered last month that was amend the planning code and clarify the minstrel for adu you're

recommendation was triumphed to the board of supervisors and a dollars no further action on that the first one is the extension of deadlines through june through the 30th passed the board of supervisors on the second reading the second one you'll be considering next month that extends the deadline to the end of the year and december that's it, 2024 next slide, please. today, we have been asked to present a hearing on the mayor's budget to protect the streets homelessness and crises erroneous and preserve single-room occupancy

and affordable housing presenting on the budget and the cbo arrogant program that is today at 1:30 next slide, please. >> and the future of union square bringing businesses back to union square next month on may 13th. next slide, please. i included a few bills those are the priority bills from the california building association and, you know, put on the radar as far as things could affect the building code the first one which would allow for private permitting review has passed and the other one is focused on regularly gates maintaining those properly.

next slide, please. >> and then i would highlight the second one on here ab 2910 will go authorize the city and county of san francisco to have the industrial building to commercial and this is one we are watching closely. >> that concludes my presentation. any questions? >> thank you. >> next, we have oh, someone has a question. >> you, you are doing a presentation on the community grants. >> yes. today. >> (multiple voices.) >> and the appropriations committee at 1:30 asked to present on the cbo grant and share a little bit about that. >> yeah. we're going to be

talking about um, similar to the conversations here at the commission we're going to be presenting our budget scenario and that is the grants will be paid for out you have general fund and pretty straightforward. >> okay. >> um, if i can share the presentation with us later on. >> sure will do. >> okay. did that does that answer your question? >> thank you. >> next is. >> 4e. update on inspection services. >> good morning, commissioners i'm matthew green the director of the support services sorry and pleased to provide the activities and performers of inspection

division. okay. first slide. >> and in march 2024 the plaguing departments had 1,000 sorry 10 thousand plus inspections and 97 were conducted by the customers studying our target of 97 percent in the same month the housing inspection services nine hundred and 79 inspectors with one hundred and 6 were multi-family. >> the plumbing division had mr. many complaints and responded to them and all around the world our code enforcement had complaint and lastly our his or her services received 4 hundred and 65 non-hazard

encampments and responded to 82 percent for the heating complaints responded to 88 percent of them within one business day and abated 4 hundred and 29 cases within the notice of violation and that concludes my presentation. i'm available for any questions that you may have. >> thank you. >> okay. >> next have. >> good morning alex deputy director of administration this month i have a regular financial update next month we'll provide an update on what may have changed in the mayors phase of budget and the fee increased

legislation will be before you, however, this month - if you can bring up the presentation it is just a regular finance update. >> 75 percent of the year has lapsed so far and twice a year at 6 and 9 months all departments project where they will end at the end of fiscal year and report to the mayor's office and controller's office those are just completed the 9 month statistics we have new projects for the end of the year. >> we project recovering 63 point one of our 55 plus the $4.4 million shortfall that is balanced by projected operating expenditure savings of

$5 million and the net resulting $600,000 whether fall through the adopt to our reserves. next slide, please. is as previously mentioned the service charges are our primary revenue source and continue to slightly underperform what we budget. all other revenue sources are projected to be on budget other than peer review, however, peer revenue is revenue reimbursement for the expenditure savings money we receive from the project sponsors we pay for the engineering purview and have reimbursed by the projects. so we will - we budget a use of

$22.9 million unbalanced this year and if the $600,000 projection net positive projection comes true we'll only need to actually use $22.3 million at the end of the year all the projections on both revenue and expenditure side are we believe very convert responsible and noticed an uptick in revenue historically spring and summer and revenue tends to be better by not project by project any increases doubt the end of the year hopefully good news at the end next slide, please. only is expenditure side very similar at 6 months and overspending our labor budget slightly and have corrected this we believe in the

next year's budget requested an increase we believe that um, our current operations were budget too low our attrition rate was budget too high next year we expect to be on budget. the big thing to note here is the massive savings in professional services and licenses so $5.4 million. that is the vast majority is peer review have a large pool of engineering firms we have purchase orders and contract them if case we need our services and know not viewed all of those but need the contract in place should need the peer services so $4 million of that $5.4 million is peer revenue savings we know will not

be - $750,000 is prior year accrued forward carried forward additional funds in the hopes if you're revenue was a bit better and revenue on track then we can spend the few minutes on deferred m i certification like cloud mitigation and the i would be remiss $5 million is the additional m i s it projects by migrating the critical services. um. next slide, please. so this continues to be similar to previously months. it is interesting in three we are processing more permits than the prior year of the valuation of those permits is lower. so this

is the reason why our revenue is lower but your work load remains exceed and high it is what it is that's it for this months presentation i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> commissioners any questions? >> thank you. >> quick question. >> oh, alex. >> page 4 the fiscal year. >> speak into mic. >> the expenditures i just what are special expenditures? >> so those are tennessee funds. of the building inspection is the umbrella financial fund all the dbis revenues and expenditures live within that various special revenue funds the repair and

demolition funds and funds for strong motion a straight program those are continuing budget special revenue resources with special uses the majority of that $10 million was - is $7 million of p t s replacement fund to replace the tracking system those are added i believe in fiscal year 2020 and have been carried forward since we're just starting that fund we hired a project manager for the permit center and planning department and other departments to lay a foundation for that and other continuing projects we're replacing the equipment and then there are other various continuing sources there. that is what the special expenditures

are. >> thank you. >> any - no further questions for a through e commissioner questions or comments. >> i'm jerry at&t letter and monthly housing notice of violations are about three times the number of non-housing notice of violations. the numbers are two hundred and 10 a month versus three times the number of notice of violation is the number of housing complaint managed by the nonprofits very large. what is dbis back up plan the approximate $5 million in

grants are excluded dbi has passed off the funding to the general fund it is a petitioner of time the grant funding is cut. thank you very much. >> any additional public comment any remotely? none comment any remotely? none remotely remotely commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedures, which are of interest to the commission. and/or determine those items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the building inspection commission. um, next regular meeting on

may 15th, commissioners have any inquiries to staff or future agenda items any public comment on items 5 a and b seeing none, we're on to item c. >> 6. update regarding the code advisory committee (cac). >> good morning. >> morning. >> presentation is coming sorry. >> a little bit slow today. >> there we go. >> i realized i should have had something to look at not off to the side but i'll have to keep on looking to the side

(laughter). >> does it show up here. >> number 6. >> thank you. >> thank you. um, good morning commissioners. steve harris i'm the vice chair of the cac cac going to presented about what is going on at cacs last year or so. >> so the citizens advisory committee contains 17 members volunteers. um, from a wide range of disciplines architecture and engineering and contractors owners and managers. historic presentation and access specialists as well as members

at large we have several subcommittees with the a.d. administrative and earth's sorry electrical and plumbing and fire subcommittee and structural seldom those are all meeting one, 27 days prior to the monthly meetings. >> in general. next slide, please. in 2023 had 10 monthly meetings 24 hour so for faa for two to date in sine qua non and march the issue we have addressed include proposed ordinances coming down from the board of supervisors. and code updates, and administrative information sheet updates and updates on

ongoing programs. >> and i'll go through those in a little bit more detail. >> first of all, the proposed ordinances quite a while this year. we had office residential and made detailed recommendations to bic including our recommendations the traditional trigger of working on two-thirds the number of floors causing a seismic up grade and to facility the use of performances structural design through f c-41 and potentially -

talked about oh, abs and as well as training seminars or workshops to help the general public and engineering public to understand how to do the design making the projects more efficient and we need the spent time on the on-site that ordinance came down from the board of supervisors as well as the fee increases. (rustling of papers.) second page of proposed ordinances. we lubricated the deferred impact fees those fees can pay for the project other

than the credentials and looked at the requirement for certification of certain electrical communications through different trades. that is something which is ongoing and more discussion more more and more of that work is happening to line voltage. and we also looked at the requirement for submittal facade inspections it came as part of the wind failures of the windows in the winter of 2023. pardon me? >> oh. >> looking at the same panhandle. >> we're one behind you. >> behind me i may have turned two pages. >> maybe the first one. >> i thought i was on the right

page i think we printed double two on the page and let's see - an increase fee and i was looking at page 6. >> you're on - we're together few. >> okay. so we're together and so communications facade inspections and suspension of annual registration fees for vacant storefronts that makes a lot of sense before the pandemic seems no longer appropriate. and last page of the code updates page number 7 removal the 50 foot height of the elevators in the housing code section this is

something that um, doubled up to the cac public comment and we made recommendations for that to occur um, as it happened. we also have discussions about new i ebc chapters were adopt by the state and how they effect the local codes. on page 8, new administrative bulletins and discussions about the departments adaptive reuse sheets? in the final stages units as 21 regarding the

building facade inspections and this was based on the results of detailed studies that we cac requested that dbi um, engaged an outside window breakage that was fun we know that was a big surprise that happened in the heavy windstorm to get them on board to do that inspection. to find what happened and each and every case in our assessment of of what needed to happen in the future and worked on clarifications through the dbi staff as well as information

sheet 0 three regarding the contractor on site? posted on the dbi website. last page number 9 we need the discuss various times updates to the accessible entrance program and concrete program which you'll be hearing more about that in the near future that's our presentation and certainly ready to take questions if you have any. >> hi, thank you steve i don't have any questions but wanted to express my gratitude and our gratitude for our work and the groups work, i.e., personally and think our whole commissioner relies on the code citizens advisory committee we don't have the time often to take the deep

dive into the issues you guys do i joined some of our meetings and appreciate the discussions we look to our recommendations we are then considering some of the issues so i think there is with great value in the group and i'm the one i suggested that item sorry to drag you up here but to understand the values they're giving to us i think that is are. >> participate steve is a structural engineer and so am i i value steve's opinion and contributions to the go up as well as the rest of group steve is here i'll express my appreciation and note that we want to give a more formal

koimgz certificate of appropriateness so i'll hand you one today thank you for being here if that's okay. >> thank you so much. and like i can say we appreciate your attendance to the cac meeting it is value to have a member of the commission. >> you thank you. (clapping.) >> any other commissioners have any comments on that item and any public comment on the item. >> i want to express any gratitude and at the you're expertise is very thoughtful and helpful i appreciate the members you take the time to write us sharing your full thinking and

up and down and i appreciate that. >> thank you and next, we have. >> 7. update on dbi's strategic plan. morning, i'm patrick the communications director for the building inspection and here to present. next slide, please. >> so we sent you the ambulance in your packet but how we get here in october of last year, we began the strategic plan a number of san francisco agencies throughout the bay area and begun by conducting interviews some of you and staff

uses our services they evaluated this research to our reform initiatives and did a survey of our customers as well as our staff to get and better understanding and more insight how the work are in areas for improvement and opportunities we know we - that information was taken in the consultant turned it into a swath assessment was used in january which the executive team myself and the consultant began to conduct this plan it is now ready to be implemented we want to share before we take action on that. next slide, please. >> so to table set to make sure we are recognizing the same terms but mission defines what we exist for as a vision who we want to be as is goals how we achieve that vision the

strategies and how we're going to achieve those goals and tactics the measures. next slide, please. so this is the departments new mission that is the department of building inspection by making sure that code compliant and reliance by the supporting san francisco. our vision our goal to be dedicated and knowledgeable staff will provide customer service using the consisted standards to provide trust and safeguard the public. next slide, please. one of the things we want to do establish the values so something not done in the that have the past we took an opportunity under director o'riordan and establish accrual in the department that allows for the greatest customer

service i'm not run through the exempts but the core one is to have customers serving the public and the services they come to us for professionally we're that providing as professional as possible and making sure we are acting in customer service and providing serve that safeguard the public and clear directions to the customers to be compliant and integrity we believe that we should adhere to the ethical obligations but create a good environment people want to come and stay to dbi and we want to make sure we commute the diversity and equity throughout everything we hire and retain and finally transparent and hold ourselves accountable and give you the information to hold us

accountable for the work we do. next slide, please. so made a lot of changes and spoken in the past about the works to improve dbi under director o'riordan and those are the recent accomplishments with the management our executive team is new under patrick and we made a number of management changes for people giving people opportunities to manage other folks and hired peep like mary church to make sure we have the right people in the right places and dbi is moving forward to implement the changes that needed to be made and made ethical reformed that are nearly complete and add new ones as necessary and building inspections with the quality control and the permitting improvements we made and

actually hear in our presentation. next slide, please. >> and i'll walk you through through the goals and if the strategies and then after that do a run through to the tactics i don't want to go into all of them but want to give a flavor of the 99 building safety to oversee the code compliant to expand san francisco environment we aim to improve the building permitting and collaborate with others to have the means to improve the building standards and transparent processes and performance benchmarks and good customer service and a host of improvement you're heard about and will hear about later on today we want to again to make sure we have the best internal

process for bochlt and to increase the public trust to expand the reform initiative but to complete the audit given pub assurance the work has been done in dbi is code compliant and with a workforce we want to attract and retain and develop the best workforce by building a culture of trust and continuity through planning and coaching and communications and our 6 goal to produce the revenue for operations to identify where we need to make technology investments and what the staffing levels are and how to fund to make sure we have enough money. next slide, please. >> so the first goal to insure the building safety and resilience we want to standardize to make sure we have

programs and policies for all the key operations and staff are trained and knowledgeable how to operate with a standardized method and track accountability to make sure that people are following the procedures and actually able to use them in a way that provides the greatest service to the public and expand our disaster preparedness dbi has a great region when the next earthquake comes but the programs for the ab e for the concrete programs are run in the effective way potential and the outreach to the public is sufficient that business owners and property owners know their responsibility in order to maintain a safe building in case of a disaster. >> then we get down to the divisional level we want to

improve the building permit application. and enhance and improve the process an ongoing effort we want to work in the permit center to define their roles and responsibility to make sure they can up our game and stash inner departmental task force and really one of the things they'll do is look at the addresses to make sure the aids are effective and serves the public and also want to implement this state mandates on us and also develop computer software including to improve routing and then also looking at wanted administrative goal for other materials we provide to the public they know exactly how to get the services they need. next slide, please. and when we look at our

enhancements processes and goals about evacuating to make sure we are efficient to make sure the directors hearing are happening on a quick enough to make sure our internal field inspections measuring their pro process and train make sure the line staff and clerical support have good training in customer service how to use is processes and also how to help people about work for your supervisor help the staff develop over time this is part of our goal of retaining good quality employees next slide, please. >> when it comes to increasing public trust we can make sure that all employees are responsible for modeling good ethic california behavior and complete the reform initiative and conduct a risk assessment so

people what know had is what the standard is for their behavior and institute lists qualities throughout dbi. next slide, please. this thing stacey best practices and planning for the future. so this is includes best practices for recruiting and hiring we get the largest pool of qualified candidates and the only boarding and carry advancements path it to make sure the managers know what opportunities are available so they continue on they're professional journey and make sure we have a plan in place we never have a gap in our services due to somebody retiring or moving out of the department. next slide, please.

the last goal london breed like to fund operations and identify what is needed in order for dbi 080 provide the best possible service and have a lot of staffing levels and investments we want to conduct a determination and what the proper technology investments and come up with ambulance to fund develop the revenue streams for additional funding those staffing and technology investments and come up with a no way structure to make sure we can do fee adjustments not in every two years. >> want to develop and institutionalize the policies to insure when points next economic downturn occurred we're prepared. next slide, please. so when it comes to implement we're to use microsoft to

develop and make sure we're attracting and have implementation groups to implement those each goal is sponsored by an executive to make sure that work is delivered on the priority and develop goals measurable objectives to the keeping us on track and 389s for our leadership and reporting you can track as the plan is developed and implemented and last deputy a communication plan to bring the public on t us what does that mean we're going to present this on may 1st, you'll get an invitation and host the kind of kickoff developing the timelines those work team

provide a biweekly report to the team to make sure they remain on track and booblgz will be addressed that's kind of the overview any questions? i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> no questions oh, let me call for public comment, any public comment on this item? >> then we'll do commissioners, comments or questions. >> sorry about that patrick. >> good morning. my name is jerry. this strategic plan is aspirational when will addicting have a detailed task list with the delivery date is locking down the dbi p t s database will

progress on the strategic plan be reported monthly in the meeting. and lastly, is there contingency plan to address a potential reduction in grants funding to nonprofits who currently manage thousands of housing complaints?. thank you very much. >> is there any public comment remotely. >> any additional public comment in-person there is none remotely. okay. commissioners any questions or comments? >> um, all right. so presentation began with reference to the sexual assaults analysis and can you speak into the microphone. >> i've been doing that all morning (laughter)

and in developing the plan how did i incorporate the swat analysis and what were the, you know, just samples of the strengths incorporated into that the opportunities - i guess that was just a um, a thought i had or question listening to the plan and (unintelligible). >> yeah. the swat analysis is detailed in some areas got down to sdhaeks identified by multiple stakeholders as a hot spot you should address and in others general like continue the reformed issues and i'm happy to provide you with a copy of swat analysis if you like. in short it was all incorporated in here the goal to do a 5-year plan we updated at&t's after 5 years my the goal to make progress over the next two years and there are

some things like a developing to replace p t s to the or so the plan acknowledgements some of the things in swat are bigger pictures in long term and had to take them in smaller chunks. >> yeah. if you can provide us with the swat - will be helpful. >> um, i have a few questions. >> my first kwes question meeting bimonthly for the- >> (multiple voices). >> expectation for that. >> what happened the workshop will happen and the first in the beginning of may for all workers and develop plans and timelines the executives have provided a list of prioritizes the strategy plans have great by a tool for

prioritizing the work and picturing that work ethically so the executives all audited the top priorities the workshops take those and develop at a timeline blemgs for each of those so we really the value to get work done by the people closest to the work not a top down that may or may not be right the purpose of workshops to get people from different divisions trying to solve ass or those and happy to come back and give you an timeline. >> that will be great in the fall and. okay. >> um, i'm curious about the comment about creating new structures new funding streams can you talk about is that

adding categories i believe so can you talk about what you're that's what exactly what you meant and yeah. yeah. it is for that is a two-part goal. tactic; right? okay. the biggest experiences is staff and technology let's get a handle what is needed to provide the services; right? if it takes one hundred hours to provide the right level we have 90 hours of staff we have to solve for that downtime; right? that that money didn't come out of air once we identify where will we find the additional money and that is addressing that specific need same way with the technology planning for the p t s let's figure out what that is

and delta and develop the revenue streams to tackle that. >> that's great to know we have the level of responsibilities i was unaware with the fee studies had had level of flexibility to identify and evaluate the cost and adjust the fee schedule mid year so to speak. >> i wouldn't assume that is a that short term; right? something we have to look out and do a long term plan. >> midterm i should say that is appropriate and interesting. >> um, one of the things i saw the beginning didn't see in the remainder of the report 0 how we're flexing our dbi goals and values in the rest of the work particularly it comes to the - i

thought the dbi i love we're adding that was very reflected internally but how externally and have not seen specifics why - think or i guess this is a question like to see how dbi staff reflects how you're language of capacity our um, breakdown reflects all of san francisco by there are language needs and there are still a lot of illegal construction going on and has barriers um, and i'm curious about what our community focus for illumination access for competency is which we're talking about in the realm of the construction ream and in the land region how we're incorporating our dbi values in our focus? >> yeah. i can speak for the

materials but come back on the housing that feels like a separate area and wouldn't want to get ahead of ftes that is an priority way but when it comes to the outreach number one, our websites are translated in english and others languages we send out a letter to a property owner and that goes out in 4 languages we also, if you call or show up necessary center needed language support for dozens of different languages um, you call there is a service we have and then if you how much show up we have people on the site they can come down and help the people when a language barrier we try hard to make sure

regardless of the barrier of the language we provide be appropriate level of service there's outreach; right? and how to make the department as welcoming to all people an ongoing challenge we're going to work on with the partners and everything. >> i ask for consideration it takes an incredible knowledge about a system to come into the door and ask for transaction if you are at that point knowing confidence provided for um, is a level of confidence that not finding how the city works but not necessary universal experience or universal knowledge so one we're looking at like also you come back with the full considerations and hear how are we implementing the goals from culturally competent and language access um, in how that goats incorporated in all

the goals. >> that's great feedback. thank you. >> thank you. and that is really big work and so, thank you. >> at the and any other comments? (coughing). >> the next item. >> 8. update on changes to in-house permit processing. >> okay. >> good morning commissioner alexander-tut i'm the detective direction the permitting services division at dbi so my

presentation today is um, going to - bring you up to speed what the division does and doing to improve the general performance on plan review and permitting first slide it is parts of three divisions within dbi. um, you have heard in the inspection services and the administration services division and also that deals with all the h.r. budget issues and so forth permit services deals with permitting. and the in take of domineer interfaces with the planned revenue and technical service on the screen is approximately, one hundred personnel within the division deal with building electrical and plumbing and the

whole customer service interfaced whether that is over the phone via e-mail or in-person next slide, please. we don't do it alone as you can imagine when the building permit application comes in we rely on the planning department and public works and the fire department and public health and the public utility commission as an auxiliary as we view the downtown support special use district that come through for code compliance and looked at it facilitating our customer service along with internal staff as dbi and partner with the permit center to interfacing interface with other department of planning as well next slide, please. we have um, three pathways for permitting.

the most assessable 24/7 is online permitting the simplest form that is offered to licensed b-2 and speciality contractors like i said 24/7 on the website and do a fair amount of work through there for fair amount of permitting to increase those numbers objective over time. those permits represent kitchen and bath remodels and change outs. your offer the counter operations account for 92 percent is volume permitting through dbi those are the smaller scopes of work or simplicity scopes both structural and non-structural within an hour worth of work when an applicant comes in and

decided whether they're eligible for over the counter we have projects projects that it takes time. are offered in house. either through a full permit or a site plan plus the process. next slide, please. (clearing throat). >> as far as volume goes we handle approximately 12 hundred projects per year. um, that taken in house. um, about seven hundred and or so. >> that is a site permit that is issued for the core building permit just the the architectural portion of that mainly handles the the and

deferred to brought in a packages after that. >> all of that rounds up out to one hundred and fifty or projects last year, we did $1.5 billion evaluation and the average one million dollars. >> that's the cost the estimated cost of the structure; right? (clearing throat) so looking at the process in totality to break down into sorry. next slide, please. we can breakdown into about 5 components. the presubmission is one that is often not considered but it is really valuable the time that the applicant the project sponsor checks the website and fills out the

application form the more information we can front load phase the better application we get if lois us to do a full review the first time. we didn't have the in take can be done in-person and has been. dbi history as you can see in house projects in 2024 gone to 100 percent electrical or digital all the applicants have the ability to submit it through our online portal and once the project is taken in and reviewed for completeness um, the applicants pays the fees and gets routed to the various divisions or departments to review. then it goes to each planned review agency the plan

review writes comments and through a series of comments and rechecks evolving we issue a permit and final fees are paid. i'm going to go through a brief timeline of the improvements here. this for me and um, began in october of 2021 when i was hired to manage this division. the elevation started immediately on the city to look at not only existing processes but the direction in which it goes to enhance operations of streamline when necessary and make efficiency where we could. by july of 2022, i was - we were able to initiate our first measures which we institute preplan check this commission

has heard about that successful program. this is the news look at intact and rectify the submittal for completeness and dbi was southern california responsible to make sure the quality of plans was up to standards where we can make a full review and all the adoption was provided and right there and then they were other things associated with the project for example, it was in steve sloipz area the protection was necessary for that project. so we implemented that process in july and at the time of institution that was we riled we were rejecting three three percent because they were incomplete that project or that

statistic at the beginning of 24 got down to 14 percent rejection rate that meant we were getting better quality projects in a better quality plans (clearing throat) at that time began the dynamic staffing if you can imagine what happens before so it was one or two projects were determined to so equal so the staff would just assigned 5 projects a week regardless of their size. and dynamic staffing meant that preplanned we took in projects we assign the estimate the number of hours for that project so we could um, now assign let's

say thirty of 40 hours to a plan checker at one time opposed to 5 projects for you and 5 projects to you so forth and so on that allowed us to assign the most available staff to the point of assignment we were able to make sure that no project was left behind in a walk that we gave it to the most qualified and available plan checker someone was assigned 5 projects and decided to take off for illness for three of those 5 days those projects were waiting. that is successful and now some of the statistics later. next slide, please. . okay.

>> sorry go back to the previous slide. okay. in order to gage the success of our new procedure we also instituted what we call the work in progress report we report to you and heard about that at previous meetings. i want to acknowledge of the work of staff at our m i s and our data analyst sitting in the backpack of room here. those teams were able to shift through the data to give us databases over the last year to see where our areas were we needed to improve. as well as recognize the overall improvements in june of 2023 the permit center they took with

reports work in progress report made that available to others departments and implementing the same measures and look at the simple statistics that dbi initiated. >> around the middle of last year, we partnered with the permit center to enhance the permitting tracking system you're heard about that today and be able to categorize or show every time that the application came both our department how much in that department versus the amount of time spent without customers. some of you know that we have been - talked about you are process is talked about in the media about how long it takes to get a permit issued no way to identify in the old system how much with the applicant and in house of. that was those new

enhancements for the permit tracking system showed how much time we were spending on that versus the applicant that was implemented in july of 2023. and it whether those this information was available on website. next slide, please. if you go to that. >> actual the one after that sorry that is of the applicant was able to see at any time on the customer facing website. shows the exact states on the right hand column only is left side how many times to speak to that quickly one of the processes improvements we made

is that when a recheck comes in as as opposed to going to the back of queue we wanted to constitute the 10 day recheck process those projects continue and in front of the plan checkers. next slide, please. at the beginning of november we started working on the big task the overall general overhaul of the process and looking at the permit tracking system what needs to be done to replace it and get us ready to go down that road we're working with the permit center to look at that collectively and make recommendations as we move forward. around january 24th was significant changes made

especially to the intact. this was triggered preliminarily by stat legislation but also by some of 24 discourse between us and is bourbons. we looked at the intact and realized that as much as we could front load the information for the applicant we would get a more and more complete review or complete package to be able to review one time and get that review done one time. so dbi - the preplan check process was pushed out to every one of our 6 partner agency so they'll review it with a complete check to make sure the dbi needs in that package by the other agencies to do a complete review was in that

package. so by state law we were allocated 15 days to do that revenue and significantly under that ever since in january. next slide, please. this is a unreadable (laughter) slide that shows the information that we have on our webbed by really is remarkable the amount of information put on the website not only by the dbi but our partner agencies to just give as much information for the applicant up front. that is overwhelming for people new to the city, however, we feel we left no stone unturned with a remark jock providing that information for people. next slide, please.

>> the website has specific reference to forms with hyper links talking about a document you can click on that and get the document right now and also provided a step-by-step process for people unfamiliar with the um, fee intact process here in san francisco next slide, please. like i said earlier own all of this information was um, put into a web portal to lie applicants to be able to submit 24/7. from the comfort of their own environment be able to go through the portal and ask simple questions and

upload their documents through the same website and the next business days projects become available for the internal staff we do our own completeness checks, you know, as soon as we have access to the documents next slide, please. go back one. >> go back one. >> sorry i seemed to have missed this slide here. >> i'm looking at slide um, 17. there we go right there. >> all right. >> so what are some of the reasons we may screen out a project at the beginning this slide talks about you may have

multiple design professionals maybe the owner that um, potentially my submit duplicates with an incomplete application we started to realize that applicants were submitting their plans without an application and didn't know what to do that with could be a wrong address that is a list of things that could potentially stop a project as soon as that was submitted. one other thing we're doing differently the planning department um, also implemented this planning approval letter whereby projects need prevail before a building permit application that accounts for large amount of time and sometimes the by this time my negate the ability for that project to move forward that is

against dbi as is permitting process you get a building permit for that entitlement now we take that entitlement ahead of the building permit process a large project comes in with no approval we would screen it out at an early stage and let them know they need an entitlement before they come in next slide, please. like i said earlier, we are doing 100 percent can i goal review so pdfs are uploaded and current with all city departments. our paper plan was subsequential and grad to be done with that that is a lot better for us internally and for the applicant a more speedy review and

offering encouraging projects some of the larger projects in our volts it takes time to proceed afford with the rest of the process we can go from paper to digital concurrent revenue this can significantly reduce the processing time the amount of time the department has plans. next slide, please. i'm not good evening to go over this in detail but essential a work flow off of our in house process shows how the plans and decisions are made whether a new project or a rereview of an existing from that point go through the review once this is complete a good luck the formulation from the prevents and fees are paid and the project becomes a real filed

project and we start monitoring our time from then open through the planned review. by law die for housing projects have thirty days thirty calendars days to review the housing project anything that creates a wore or more handouts or less than 25 once that is we have thirty dlaerndz days and 20th century units it is or more sorry 26 units or more 60 calendars days and to keep those deadlines. next slide, please. >> so some of the results we we've seen since january 1st to

today, and i'll go over some statistics how general improvements have been working out. this slide shows that we have a high completion rate when it comes to the first submission we work to front load the information and where bit people that may have been used to submitting a certain what have now been - you know, advised otherwise. and so for the majority of cases today, i think if you can imagine now earlier on i said we went through a three three screening rate or rejection to 14 that jumped up as other departments looked those for the first time. but we are, you know, we start out kind of high around 35 percent so

rejected at the beginning and getting closer to where we need to be. nearly 100 percent of those checks between the 15 days that is state allows and like i said we're happy to say on the average meeting 8 days and fewer for the screening we are getting those projectors start a lot quicker and dbi continues to meet our goal for comforting providing our first comments within 10 days of assignment. next slide, please. >> so this is slide shows the um, hi. i'm

hopeful we can see similar progress and i have one question dots building permit applicants get to chose their planned checker failure to assign planned checkers horrifying has ruled in abuses. thank you. >> any address public comment? >> any remotely? >> okay. seeing none, commissioners have any questions or comments for discussion. >> just a public comment. >> certainly. >> oh, yeah optimistic, of course, we don't allow the public to choose the plan checker. >> thank you. >> um, i don't have any

questions i i'm excited about the improvements a lot of work one thing i appreciate about how this is unfolded is collaboration one all levels of the folks and thank you for the leadership you have shown that's it. >> thank you. >> and express thanks for this presentation i know we've had discussions and have a charts and this is helpful to be able to really process that a little bit better i appreciate that. i'm sure that is not taking a tiny amount of time i appreciate the thought that went into this in do you mean this to

understand that clearly. >> thank you i would to acknowledge our staff as being accommodating i can't imagine garnt statistics instead of getting the job down they've done remarkably. >> i want to add those points of emphasis fulfilling it is, you know, now i've been on the commission for a while i can see some development and hazard in progress so want to yeah. thank you for the presentation and the from this - and i'm happy to all right. >> thank you, commissioner >> thank you. >> our next item. >> 9. review and approval of

the minutes of the special meeting of february 14, 2024. >> motion to approve the minutes from february 14th i do i have a second? >> second. >> okay. any public comment on the item? >> um, none remotely. >> all commissioners in favor of the february minutes, aye. >> >> opposed? and thank you. the minutes are approvals and item 10. >> 10. review and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of march 20, 2024. >> i would like to ask for a motion to continue this item to the next meeting the minutes are not ready for today. >> motion and. okay. second. >> you do i have a second? and second yeah. >> any public comment on that motion. >> seeing none, all commissioners in in favor to continue this to the next

meetings. >> aye. >> >> opposed? thank you, item 11. >> 11. discussion and possible action on the annual performance evaluation for the bic secretary. >> 11a. discussion and possible action on the annual performance evaluation for the bic secretary. any public comment on this item? >> any remotely in public comment. um, then next is. >> 11b. public comment on all matters pertaining to the closed session. a mission to two into closed session? >> so moved. >> and do i have a second? >> second. >> okay. thank you. >> have to do a roll call vote commissioner alexander-tut, yes. >> vice president chavez, yes. >> president neumann, yes. >> commissioner sommer, yes. >> councilmember clark that motion carries. unanimously we're now in closed session it

is okay. good afternoon advertised 12:47 p.m. that is the department of building inspection. we are on agenda item disclose any or all discussions held in closed session (administrative code section 67.10(b). >> possession to reconvene and not disclose items in closed session. >> do i have a second? >> second. >> okay. >> now. >> okay. and just to do a roll call vicinity on that motion. >> commissioner alexander-tut, yes. >> vice president chavez, yes. >> president neumann, yes.

>> commissioner sommer, yes. and commissioner williams next is he item 12. >> 12. adjournment. motion to adjourn. >> all in favor, say "aye." >> aye. >> we're not adjourned 90-day grace period it is 12:48 p.m. [meeting adjourned] you are watching san francisco rising with chris manor. today's special guest is sarah

phillips. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting rebuilding and eare imagineing the city. the guest today is sarah phillips the executive director of economic workforce development. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. let's talk about the city economic plan and specifically the city's road map to san francisco future. can you give a brief overview and update on progress? >> absolute e. in february 2023 mayor breed released the roadmap comprised to 9 strategies to move the city forward understanding there was structural and lang lasting changing by the covid impact. 134 were shorter term impacts how people using transit downtown and coming out and are

using small businesses, some of them remember long-term structural impacts. the way we work. how often we are in an office and how much office space companies who had headquartered in san francisco need. some of those were structural impacts how we stop. there has been a long-term change as online shopping takes up a greater share how we performs and covid-19 took a shift that would probably take 10 to 15 years happen and collapse what happened ofern the timeframe to 2 years so saw structural impacts how people shop. we have seen a lot of progress rchlt we are 9 months in and significant things we have seen is efforts creating permitinant services and homes for people experiencing homelessness is dramatic. we increased the number of shelter beds dramatically and take-up of the beds dramatically, and there is more

work to do. on the safety side there are exciting things that happened. we increased our police pay among the highest in the bay area which is a important thing for recruitment. police recruitment across the country is down so recruiting the best we can means we need to give a high pay set. august the highsh return in graduates. we see 75 decrease in retail theft and 50 percent reduction in car break ins which is quality of life crime san francisco experienced so there is real progresses we are seeing on clean and safe sides. one thing important in the mayor roadmap we are not trying to get back to 2020 vision. i think covid showed having a downtown with people sitting at

offices isn't the best downtown it can be. i think it is a opportunity to bring 24 hour life use downtown. >> music and concerts is a great way to bring people to a specific location. golden gate park we had lots of events in plazas throughout the city. can you talk about those and if there is upcoming events too? >> i think you touched on something key to the mayor road map. for san francisco and particularly san francisco downtown to move forward and be successful as a great american city, it is about bringing people together because they want to be together not because they center to be together and music is a strongrt that. the planet concert sear ries coming up and happening throughout the city not just golden gate park but downtown locations are a great example. there are smaller examples as well.

the landing at--is a new plaza we constructed in the mayor roadmap where two streets come together akwraisant to a couple restaurants closed to cars in daytime, chairs and seating and throughout the week they have lunch time and evening music to bring people together after work. they participate in that. something we are working on setting up for next year which is really exciting is our sf live program and that will bring a full 2024 concert series where we match local venues bringing their work and partnership to useian square, music center plaza and embark cadero. we will be able to announce concert series through the sf-

>> you mentioned vacant to vibrant, that program has a lot of attention lately. can you talk generally what exactly that program is? >> yeah. so, we opened a program where we put out a call for landlords willing to offer groundfloor space for free for 3 to 6 month jz small business or storefront operators who had a proposal what they would do for 3 to 6 months. it is pilot. we had a incredible amount of interest. we had--i'm forgetting the number of landlords, but more then we expected because we are in a place where commercial real estate understands they need to come to the table to help make our groundfloor lively and resulting in a transition where the groundfloor is seen less as a money making operation, but more as a leader to lease upper floors. if you have a active ground

floor yields better on the other 80 percent of the building you are trying to lease. that was great, a lot of cooperation scr over 700 small business or operators responded to that call. it is pop up. there is no intention this would result in forever small businesses, but there is certainly a hope and i think what we are hearing, i don't have the final data, but there are 17 activators in 9 different spaces, some are colocated, which is why the difference, and out of those 9 spaces that are being leased for free, now 7 of them are in discussions for long-term leases so the spaces continue. it is the program. we are hopeful to have a second and third traunch and hoping to pilot in other neighborhoods with other partners. it is not an inexpensive program because there is a lot of capital that goes into popping up for short amount of time but what we are seen is they visit the businesses, the businesses are successful and san francisco want to support

this activation so hopeful to expand it. >> that's great. can you talk a bit about why piloting programs and testing things is so important? >> absolutely. you know, i would say not only the important generally but important in san francisco specifically. the benefit of pilot programs in the reasons they are really important here is, it allows us to try something and say, there may be consequence but let's understand those in real time rather then waiting to start a strategy while we think about them on paper and if they are too great we can modify the program as we go. mta has absorbed the strategy whether a bike lane or other to figure how best to use the street? is this working? is it working for bikes and cars and buses? maybe not, let's switch it around and pilots have been important to oewd to our office

particularly because we tend to have the ability and the mayor's support through the budget process to pilot things through request for proposals or rfp process where we can put out a small amount of funding, try activation and small public plaza, see if it works and i think the benefit there is, if it doesn't work we tried it and had the benefit of seeing real time and when it does work, we are able to uplift that and move into a permanent strategy and that is where our agency turns over something we piloted to another agency because it is part of the city operating procedure. pilots also give people hope. when we have the short-term whether it is physical public plaza or activation that shows change is possible and allows

them to vote for what they like. >> lastly, in lith light of the current ai boom, do you think there is a way to leverage those new changes to take a bunch of san francisco's status as a tech hub? >> i do, i think they work together. san francisco right now has a strong vacancy problem in our office space. and there is a back-story to that. our zoning downtown has not prevented other uses, in terms of permitting uses of the multi-story building has been open including allowing residential but we put other barriers, cost and code barriers et cetera and what happened also during the height of our preevious boom is that, the amount that tech companies were willing to pay for office space bid everything out so we-without intentionally zoning a single use downtown, we de

facto became a single use downtown and thereat is the opportunity you are pointing out. now because downtown was so convertible from work from home, particularly as tech based downtown was and how much companies put at the market in the office spaces we are seeing high vacancy now, all most 30 percent so there is lot of square feet but that presents a lot of opportunity. we have the ability to absorb expansion of the tech industry we are so strong at. we have seen over 800 thousand square feet of ai space leased just in 2023 alone and there is still more demand out in the market, more ai companies looking for space so that is a growth spot absorbing some of the vac ancy. the opportunity too is prices for downtown lease s have also dropped and that opens up a breath of opportunity to a breath of companies that were

priced out in 2018, 2019, 2020. san francisco has always been great at starting companies and allowing them to grow here. when our prices are too high it prevents that growth so now we are a super fertile ground for more start ups and invasion on the smaller end of the sector because they can come and enter our market and we have the space to offer. to talk about san francisco's assets and the leveraging that, we sit at the epicenter of really great university and educational institutions. we are between uc berkeley and stanford. the graduates produced just from those institutions alone stay in the bay area and want to rise up and work here, provide a real opportunity for the start ups to build their companies and companies to grow here so we confident we will absorb a certain amount of office space with ai tech. with that, we are interested in increasing our human capital growing graduates.

downtown university is something the mayor is open to pursuing and we are in conversations with uc berkeley we love to have as a partner in our downtown and then residential conversions are a great partner to that. as we build back the office space, people will want to live downtown again and we have a number buildings that can be converted to residential. the costs are high. mayor breed and her partners on the board made significant changes to reduce the costs. we waived fees for change of uses in the downtown area. there are code changes that will make the conversions easier. there is a ballot measure on the march ballot that will attempt to reduce costs for those as well. it is ongoing process and none of those changes we talked about absent ai growth downtown, but institutional growth downtown, arts growth downtown and residential conversions downtown are long-term changes so one thing

i want to say recollect i do think there is a opportunity per your question, but we also need to be patient because what we are talking about is is a real shift to the make-up of the downtown since from the growth it has been starting at since the turn of the century so that isn't a 2 year change, that is a 10 year change and we center to watch as it goes. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate you spending the time here today and your creative vision and positivity, so thank you so much. >> thanks so much for having me and hope you all downtown and shop. >> that is it for this episode. for sfgovtv i'm chris manors, thanks

♪ >> welcome to hamilton recreation and aquatics center. it is the only facility that has an integrated swimming pool and recreation center combined. we have to pools, the city's water slide, for little kids and those of you that are more daring and want to try the rockslide, we have a drop slide. >> exercises for everybody. hi have a great time.

the ladies and guys that come, it is for the community and we really make it fun. people think it is only for those that play basketball or swim. >> i have been coming to the pool for a long time now. it is nice, they are sweet. >> in the aquatics center, they are very committed to combining for people in san francisco. and also ensuring that they have public safety. >> there are a lot of different personalities that come through here and it makes it very exciting all the time. they, their family or teach their kids have a swim.

>> of the gem is fantastic, there is an incredible program going on there, both of my girls have learned to swim there. it is a fantastic place, check it out. it is an incredible indication of what bonn dollars can do with our hearts and facilities. it is as good as anything you will find out why mca. parents come from all over. >> there are not too many pools that are still around, and this is one-stop shopping for kids. you can bring your kid here and have a cool summer. >> if you want to see some of the youth and young men throughout san francisco play

some great pickup games, come wednesday night for midnight basketball. on saturdays, we have a senior lyons dance that has a great time getting exercise and a movement. we have all the music going, the generally have a good time. whether it is awkward camp or junior guard. >> from more information, visit

are very chatty today. apparently, which is wonderful. good afternoon. i'd love to call to order this. april 16th, 2024. regular meeting of the municipal transportation agency, board of directors and parking authority commission on. secretary silva, please call the roll on the roll call. director hemminger here. hemminger present. director henderson here. henderson present. director hinsey present. hinsey. present. director so here. so present. director. tarlov. here. tarlov present. director. kahina. here. kahina. present. chair. eken. here eken present. for the record, i note that director hinsey is attending this meeting remotely. director hinsey is reminded that she must appear on camera throughout the meeting. and in order to speak or vote on any items, places you on item number three. the ringing and use of cell phones and similar sound producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. the chair may order the removal from the meeting room. any person responsible for the ringing or use of a cell