New director for building department

From today's SFGate,

A city commission named a new director for San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection on Monday, bringing in a new leader from out of town to head an agency that has been criticized for favoritism, cronyism and being too susceptible to local political pressure.

Isam Hasenin spent the last five years working as San Diego's chief building officer. He also serves as vice chairman of the California Building Standards Commission, which is charged with adopting and implementing state building codes.

Hasenin, 48, who is considered to be one of California's leading experts on building codes, will begin his post in San Francisco on March 19.

"We are shooting for a department that will be responsive, transparent and will treat all of our customers with fairness and equity," he said Monday morning during a Building Inspection Commission meeting at City Hall.

"We will have a process that's streamlined and simple enough that anybody can navigate. We want to be accountable at all levels of the organization, set a real high ethical standard starting with the director, commission and rest of the staff," he said.

The building inspection department is responsible for inspecting and issuing permits for virtually all construction in the city. [more...]

New director named to lead city's troubled building department [SFGate]
Who's going to work for the DBI, now? [SFHomeBlog]
More problems at DBI [SFHomeBlog]
Isn't It Ironic? Don't You Think? [SFist]