Civil Grand Jury report - Superior Court of California

City and County of San Francisco2012-2013 Civil Grand JuryFindings Recommendations ResponsesRequired7.1 The DBI should review and expand its criteria for using the Dir., Department ofBuilding Code’s Demolition and Repair Fund to achieve actual Building Inspectionabatement of unsafe building conditions.7. The DBI has been unable toachieve prompt abatement of asignificant number of serious,continuing code violations in multiunithousing and abandoned olderbuildings.7.2 The Abatement Appeals Board should abide by the BuildingCode’s limits on continuances during the NOV process.7.3 The Board of Supervisors should review the administrativeprocedures in the Building Code and consider enacting a processthat provides for stronger penalties at the administrative level.8. DBI’s Building and CodeEnforcement Sections have notconsistently assessed and/orcollected the fees, costs, andpenalties available under theBuilding Code. This has deprivedDBI of resources that could bedevoted to further enforcementactivities.9. Outdated and incompletedocumentation and poorly definedbusiness processes couldcompromise the implementation ofthe Accela software system.8.1 All DBI enforcement units should use the monetary tools in theBuilding Code to encourage abatement and to fund enforcementoperations.9.1 The DBI should ensure that management has clearly defined thebusiness rules and workflow processes for the new Accela system.9.2 The DBI “subject matter experts” assigned to the Accelaimplementation team should be given adequate time to respond toconsultant questions not addressed by department documentationand to fully assist in system acceptance testing prior to going live.Pres., BuildingInspectionCommissionDir., Department ofBuilding InspectionPres., BuildingInspectionCommissionDir., Department ofBuilding InspectionBuilding a Better Future at the Department of Building Inspection32