Participate in our public process. That concludes my announcements today, madam secretary. Clerk okay. Thank you, president mccarthy. Is there any Public Comment on the president s announcement . Operator there are no callers in the queue. Clerk okay. Thank you. Our next item on the agenda is item 3, certificate of appreciation and acknowledgement for inspector christina dangmoy for commitment to her duties and compassion for the community. President mccarthy so commissioner tam, please take it from here. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President , and thank you, sonya. Id like to thank my fellow commissioners for their support in the department of building inspection. Being a San Francisco native [inaudible] as a city, where were currently hoping to make a positive impact on where were heading. Having said that, never have i set foot into a San Francisco s. R. O. So id accompanied inspector dangmoy on a few Building Inspections. During the inspections, i witnessed the commitment to community, the compassion for tenants, and the services that they provide. Inspector dangmoy serves as a voice for those who cant speak for themselves, and i for myself saw the Living Conditions for s. R. O. Tenants. I want to thank director oriordan for his efforts during this time to that d. B. I. Can serve in a role in the citys continuing recovery efforts. His staff has done an amazing job and is not only ensuring life safety but in handling permit approvals and issue weawea issuance. So without further adieu, on behalf of the Building Inspections commission, id like to virtually present a certificate of acknowledgement and appreciation to Housing Inspector christina dangmoy. Im sure shell share this acknowledgement with her fellow employees. Thank you for the work that everybody does, and thank you for the work that our Housing Inspectors do in the community and, you know, the compassion that they show and provide. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you so much, commissioner tam, coming with me and going through the building. Im humbled, and this building certificate is for all building inspectors, not just in my division, but the department, so thank you again. President mccarthy and thank you for all your work. As commissioner tam, i actually got schooled myself many years ago when i sat on the s. R. O. Housing stock and saw how important it is to so many people in the city, and how challenging it is to live in these homes, but also how important it is for so many people. So appreciate your work there, and it takes a certain person to do that job and do it with compassion on behalf of the commission. Clerk thank you. Are there any public callers on this item . Operator there are no public callers in the queue . Clerk then our next item is item 3, general Public Comment. The b. I. C. Will take Public Comment on matters within the commissions jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda. Operator im not seeing anyone. Thank you, everyone. Take care. Clerk it looks like theres one one hand raised. I dont have a unmute them. Clerk oh, okay. Just one moment. Sorry. Hello, caller. You are now unmuted. Hello, caller . Hello. Can you hear me . Clerk yes. You have two minutes. Good morning, commissioners. My name is paul wormer. I wanted to talk to an issue that relates very much to the combination of the covid crisis and the recent fires. This is a very specific request thats happened in my neighborhood to legalize a ground floor retail. And because of the location of that space and excellent idea. Its not a good space for retail. However, its a ground floor unit. The only ventilation required by code is an opening window at the sidewalk level, and that, to me, poses a number of problems when you think about the issues of shelter in place and your only ventilation is an opening work. From gas heaters in the unit to cooking to other problems are significant without ventilation. We have not been able to open our windows in our much larger building for several days. Last night, finally, we could, and it was wonderful. But on a small unit, thats problematic. When you factor in the groundfloor unit at the sidewalk, many occupants will not be comfortable relying on an open window. I think its a problem, and i would like to ask that perhaps that is something that the Building Inspection Department consider for the San Francisco specific amendment. Thank you. Clerk okay. Thank you. There dont seem to be any other callers in the queue, so the next matter is item 5, commissioners questions and matters. Inquiries to staff. At this time, commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices, and procedure which are of interest to the commission. President mccarthy commissioner alexandertut . I have a question, and its similar to what the previous caller mentioned, and thank you for standing in. I understand many of the ventilation requirements in Building Code do rely on freshair circulation as much for bathrooms, etc. , in hallways, air vent. And Fire Prevention is becoming a thing in San Francisco. As the fire season gets longer, those kind of ventilation systems are not able to provide the ventilation that are required and actually become a fire hazard. I understand that construction has to be in compliance with the year that it was constructed, and maybe the wood frame windows are leaky, but theyre still in compliance. What are options that we have in terms of addressing the code i understand new construction, but for constructed buildings that are currently meeting code that are not meeting the Indoor Air Quality or the ventilation systems, theyre relying on fresh air. When we dont have reliable fresh air, what are our options for updating code, and is that even within d. B. I. S purview or is that planning . So i can speak to that a little bit, commissioner. Who is, as we all know, is not currently enforced for existing buildings. What you might be talking about is legislative changes, and i understand weve been experiencing this for several weeks, unprecedented air quality, and we dont anywknowt the future holds. Especially for existing buildings, ventilation is provided by open windows. We dont have the ability to look at an existing building and say the ventilation provided by those operable windows is noncompliant. It would be legislation. Thank you. That was my understanding, and ive gotten several calls and texts about Indoor Air Quality, and it was also my understanding that that was not that was not within the commissions purview, supposedly, that that would take a more legislative change and involve the department. Would you want where would you like me to take this, commissioner alexandertut, to afterwards . The thing is that were such a land locked property, with the enforcement codes and so on. At this point, i think im okay with the answer. I know there are Community Organizations who are engaging in some studies on this, and, you know, if theres a report that comes out as a result of those studies, thats maybe something we can look at. But i think at this point, thats a good question to start, and i think its something to think about, but no further action at this time. Okay. Deputy City Attorney rob kapla. I just want to clarify the issue just to make sure were on the same page, and perhaps director oriordan can correct me if i am wrong, but if theres a change of a space from retail to residential space, the building has to come into compliance with the current residential Building Code; that the change of use makes it almost as if it were new construction. So i think the concern here is whether we want to amend not necessarily these changed spaces, because they will have to comply with our modern codes. That is a concern, and that is a larger legislative research project; certainly, something to look into. Yeah. And not to get too complicated about it, i did sit on the Economic Task force recovery, and the last time [inaudible] there was a big discussion about, you know, retail that is no longer available, converting it to residential. And that was a conversation about how doable that was in reference to a lot of the processes. So i to robs point there, i think a lot of that would be captured in the legislation if we do change that, so i think we should be good. But as duly noted, it is something thats going to definitely be seen in a lot of corridors there just the fact that the retail thats gone is not coming back, you know . Next so commissioner sorry. Commissioner clinch . Commissioner clinch nothing from me, thank you. President mccarthy and then, commissioner tam. Nothing from me, thank you. President mccarthy okay. Madam secretary . Clerk next item, future meetings and agendas. At this time, the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of a special meeting and or determine these items that could be placed on the agenda of the next meeting and other future meetings of the Building Inspection Commission. The next item is currently scheduled for october 21. Is there any Public Comment for this item . Operator there are no callers in the queue. Clerk okay. Item 6, discussion regarding an emergency ordinance, board of supervisors file number 200914, to impose temporary limits on construction noise inside Apartment Buildings during the covid19 pandemic, in addition to other requirements. Deputy chief [inaudible] im sorry. Chief, did you have any items to present . Excuse me. Im a little confused. Clerk this is just the update, the update for the the actually, im sorry. I probably im on the wrong item. Im sorry. I apologize. President mccarthy was there somebody clerk so this was a different this is the board of supervisors item, right. President mccarthy correct, and i believe theres somebody from the supervisors clerk yes. President Mccarthy Office to present. Clerk thank you. Thank you. Thank you to president mccarthy, and thank you to the commission for allowing me to present, and thanks to john murray, who ive been working with for a couple of weeks now. If its all right, ill take this in an order thats best for the commissioners. Ill give an opening about the legislation and sort of where it sits from a legislative status voice. My name is andy mullen. Im a legislative aide to district 2 supervisor, catherine stefani. Im here to speak on the emergency legislative ordinance that my supervisor spoke to a couple of weeks ago at the board of supervisors. This ordinance came when a group of tenants, a group of organized tenants were having real issues of the peaceful habitability of their apartments in what had become ongoing construction not in their building, but in nearby units. As you all know, were sheltering in place, which means were all living, working, and educating our children inside our Living Spaces, and our Living Spaces are more important than ever. And so the origin of this emergency ordinance was to begin a conversation to help remedy that issue. These are tenants, right, who pay an awful lot of money to live in these apartments, and who really feel like they are not receiving sort of what theyre contractual leoecontra given whats happening around them. [please stand by] we dont have a date for that yet. I would like, you know, and there are a number of amendments that have been suggested by all sorts of groups that i can go through sort of conceptually that i think will probably incorporate most of in some form or fashion before we get to scheduling, and im happy to come speak at the commission again when there is a more finalized version of this legislation. So, with that, im happy to take any questions and hear any input from any commissioner what they would like to see or hope for or what concerns they have. Madam secretary, probably go to Public Comment. Any Public Comment on this item . I am not seeing any callers in the queue, double check that, nope. No caller in the queue. Ok. Thank you, apologies, got the order wrong. I was hoping i really like that. Apologize. I was very miss. Your Public Commenter today was, the previous item, paul warmer, a fabulous district 2 constituent and for air quality in San Francisco, i have not seen him since shelterinplace began, but great to see him again. Sight for sore ears. I would love to hear from you all. Once again, thanks for coming on such short notice, i just true legislative aide, john murray, was getting briefed on this. If i may before i get into it, and reach out to my fellow commissioners to see if they have any commissioner. Commissioner alexandertut, please. I guess my question is, so the legislation is to be able to keep construction going but provide a reasonable accommodation to a tenant or all tenants affected. Is there are there any kind of guidelines, reasonable accommodation is often, you know, in the world we call the dance of like theres no guaranteed outcome of what a reasonable accommodation is . So, will you be defining reasonable accommodation for tenants and is there also a mandate that there will be some kind of accommodation . So, thats a fantastic question commissioner, and i the original draft of the legislation, which will probably not be the final version of the legislation, creates a space for, and i shouldnt say this legislation obviously did begin with tenants but its not entirely restricted to tenancy, right, to all occupants. So it could be adjacent condo owner, you know, type people or a tenant anyway, the it created a space for the parties in dispute to come to whatever agreement was amenable to the parties, right . It said this legislation was not intended to prescribe any outcome, right . It was intended to force parties to come together and come to an agreement that was mutually beneficial. Since that time, ive heard a lot of concern about the wide ranging uncertainty that that creates, and so we are in discussions about amendments to create the parameters around what acceptable, sort of, you know, guideposts for what a reasonable accommodation would be, and that includes sort of no more than 10 of base rent per month is one of the suggestions, we have not accepted that as a particular, another is offering, you know, tenant another quieter space to operate. Other forms of reasonable accommodation include mandatory communication plan with hours of disruption and limiting the hours, you can go about this in would ways, right . Continuous hours of disruption or sort of duration during the day, like how many hours per day and how many consecutive days can it occur, both are numbers you can permit a certain amount and when you go over that cap you trigger some sort of higher level of accommodation, right . There are projects that take, and one thing i have asked john, and i know hes working on for me, to understand sort of if you were to take all the projects in San Francisco and plot them on a bell curve, right, what, and how long, what duration they take for completion, i imagine it would be a hump where there are lots and lots and lots of projects would take less than a week, you know, or some less than two weeks, right . Much smaller things and then it, the tail gets rather long on the projects at the end that are ongoing, longterm ongoing in nature are the ones where the tenants feel most aggrieved, rightfully, because there is no end in sight. And so putting parameters around those, more definitional, right, has been something that has been recommended to us by a number of different parties and we are actively considering and i would love commissioners feedback and input on that. Was that a helpful answer, commissioner alexandertut . Thank you for that. And landlords of all sizes or a size limit for, you know, to be able to qualify for this kind of mandate and negotiation in . So, right now the legislation is for buildings of over four units of any kind. Thank you. Ties to most other regulations related to that law. Uhhuh. That does answer my questions for now, thank you. Of course. And thank you andy for your enthusiast enthusiastic informative thank you, commissioner. Commissioner clinch, please. Thank you, thank you for your coming today. I am struggling to understand how you said you provided a qualifier that this does not just apply to tenants, you refer to the occupant as a tenant. Would you please clarify . Thats just yeah, happy to. Thats probably me just being sloppy linguistically, issue came to us through tenants and i imagine most are in tenants with dispute with the landlords but it could apply to all occupants or residents. Like i live in an condo, if my neighbors were doing something next door that, and my building is over four units, my neighbors next door were doing something that violated the code, it would apply to them as well. So its not just a tenant landlord issue, its a neighbor to neighbor issue . In buildings of more than four units, yeah. Thats the definition as it currently stands. Ok. Thank you. That does not just for clarification, like h. O. A. S have pretty strong internal governing structures. I know that i already, right, have to get approval from the h. O. A. , so homeowners already have additional condo owners in this situation have additional protections, so talking about the applicability or the cases in which this would occur would probably be a landlord tenant relationship, 99. 9 of the time, but not, you know, hypothetical extension could be further. Thank you. But im happy to also discuss that further if you would prefer to, you know, the commissioners have any suggestions about that, i would be open to hearing their thoughts on changing those parameters as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner. Thank you, thank you for joining us, andy. Sounds like you guys are in the early phase of drafting this legislation. Just a couple of things that come to my mind. I think one, we already have in place of hours of when construction can take place at this time. I think just thinking out loud here, if there was some scope of work that is larger than others, you know, as a homeowner you shoul