Building Inspection Commission approves DBI two-year budget, directs fee study and work-order reductions

The San Francisco Building Inspection Commission voted unanimously to approve the Department of Building Inspection(DBI) proposed two-year budget and attached a directive directing DBI to develop a timeline and strategies to reduce a projected shortfall.

Deputy Director Tyris Madison told the commission the department is "projecting about $57,000,000 in revenues," while presenting a $91,300,000 budget that relies on reserves and contingency funds to cover the roughly $34,000,000 difference between revenues and expenditures. "We will be working on balancing the budget," Madison said, and identified interdepartmental work orders and salary costs as the principal levers for potential reductions.

Why it matters: DBI is an enterprise department that is largely fee-funded, and commissioners and public commenters warned that continued reliance on reserves would be unsustainable. Public commenters raised alarm about the scale of projected operating losses, the cost implications of DBI's move to 49 South Van Ness and about $5,000,000 in city grants charged to DBI. Jerry Drattler, a caller, said the department faces an "operating deficit" unless revenues are raised or expenses cut; Ozzy Grama of the San Francisco Land Use Coalition said "DBI's operating reserves are down to about $40,000,000." Those figures were presented as public comment and not revised in the meeting materials.

On the floor, commissioners pressed DBI for a plan to reduce the use of reserves and to undertake a fee study. Madison later estimated a fee study would take roughly a year with an outside vendor and said DBI would "right size our fees based on the right expenses." Commissioners focused repeated attention on interdepartmental work orders, which Madison said have been budgeted at about $25,000,000 and for which he committed to seek reductions "by working with those departments."

The commission attached a directive to the approved budget that asks DBI to produce a plan and timeline that includes (1) a fee study and reassessment of the fee schedule and (2) a strategy to lower interdepartmental work orders, with periodic updates to the commission. Commissioner Alexander Toot moved the directive, which Vice President Tam seconded. The commission recorded unanimous "Yes" votes for both the budget and the attached directive.

Next steps: Madison said the department will submit the approved budget to the mayor's office by Feb. 22 and provide monthly revenue reports; commissioners requested additional check-ins and at least quarterly updates on work-order reductions and progress toward the fee-study recommendations.

The commission concluded with plans to monitor implementation of the directive and to revisit budget adjustments as updated revenue and expenditure data become available.