San Francisco Building Inspection Commission backs new director’s overhaul and revised budget

San Francisco’s Building Inspection Commission voted to approve an implementation recommendation from newly appointed Department of Building Inspection Director Esam Hassanen and accepted a revised fiscal 2007–2008 budget after a wide-ranging presentation on departmental deficiencies and reforms.

Hassanen told the commission that his initial two-month review found a technically capable staff but systemic problems in management, process and automation that have slowed reviews and inspections. “We perform 11,000 inspections [a month], we issue over 5,000 permits and perform over 3,200 plan checks,” he said, using those volumes to argue for structural and process changes.

The director proposed three main budget-driven initiatives: an internal business-process reengineering (BPR) effort that will be carried out over several months; a pilot premium plan-check service that would charge an extra 50 percent fee and be staffed separately from standard plan-check operations; and targeted hires, including a geotechnical engineer and a fire-protection engineer, to provide in‑house technical expertise for complex projects. He said the reorganization would temporarily add four project-based managerial positions for roughly three years as a test of the new structure.

Why it matters: DBI oversees enforcement…