San Francisco Examiner Front Page Dec. 30, 1998

Gold-Plated City Hall

But beneath the stunning restoration, a creaky old computer system struggles on

By Matt Beer Examiner Technology Writer

While officials were proclaiming San Francisco’s renovated City Hall a monument to the age of technology, bureaucrats lugged in boxes of aging real estate papers, set up dingy microfilm viewers and plugged in tired dot matrix printers at the Hall of Records.

“I can’t lie to you,” said City Treasurer Susan Leal, stepping out of a media tour of the domed landmark in advance of next Wednesday’s reopening. “It’s far from perfect. Way far from perfect.”

During Tuesday’s showcasing of the sparkling, newly restored City Hall, reporters were shown an array of technological innovations hidden behind Manchurian walnut and burnished oak panels.

Networked flat-panel computer displays for supervisors will be in every hearing room. A centralized basement computer system will keep tabs of the supervisors’ votes as well as decide who has the floor. There will be buildingwide Internet access for city officials and a separate office for Mayor Brown’s computer so it won’t clutter up the décor.

When asked whether the mayor’s hookup could have been placed in Brown’s formal office, city architect and City Hall Project manager Tony Irons replied, “We could have, but that would be tacky.”

When the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake shook City Hall down to its 1915-cast foundations, officials vowed to retrofit the building into a historic yet modern structure that would please the eye and serve San Francisco’s citizens well.

On the verge of its official unveiling, however, the renovated City Hall has lapsed into a syndrome commonly seen on many college campuses: spiffy facilities for the administrators-in this case the city officials - and hand-me-downs for the students in this case the front-line employees and city citizens.

Even the media appear to be getting a better deal than taxpayers. The pressroom has been enlarged.

Part of the building’s $5 million technology upgrade makes it easier for TV stations to cover City Hall with permanent robotic camera mounts in a third-floor press conference room and curbside video and audio hookups.

“Cable running over lawns, though doors and down hallways is eliminated,” brags a handout from Ceitronics, the San Jose-based company that managed the multimedia improvements. High-tech improvements make it to all areas of City Hall though.

Clerks will still be running down hallways to deal with a decades-old mishmash of computer systems. For example, said Leal, a basic transaction like paying a water bill must be entered into three separate computer systems. One of those systems was built and programmed in 1989.

“It’s really a shame to keep using it,” LW said of the system, which handles most of The City’s cash transactions.”

No budget for technology Leal said budget demands-muni crisis and the like prevented the city from upgrading its technological infrastructure.

“It’s all a question of money, money we don’t have right now,” she said.

The money used to restore the building to its former glory was from a different pot; namely federal funds allocated after the 1989 earthquake “separate issues totally,” Leal said.

Meanwhile, Leal said, she stood sadly by while other Bay Area cities moved bravely into the digital world, cities such as techno-savvy San Carlos, which uses its World Wide Web site (www.ci.san-carlos-ca-us) to publish environmental impact reports and allow developers to check on the status of their permit applications.

“It just makes incredibly good sense to use today’s technology for a lot of good reasons,” said San Carlos Assistant City Manager Brian Moura. “It’s fast. It lets your employees be really efficient and it lets you respond quickly to your citizens’ needs.”

Moura, who worked for the San Francisco court system in the 1970’s, said he was perplexed by The City’s reluctance to plunge into the high-tech world.

Having three computer systems handle a water bill that’s not right,” he laughed.

City studying problem

Leal said The City is with consultants about what it would take to modernize citywide computer system. It would not take a major rewiring of the building, she said, because the foundation, or the backbone, for a modem system was laid during the renovation. Meanwhile, Leal said, the old computers will be able to hurtle one high-tech barrier: The year 2000 bug.

“We’ve been reassured that our computers won’t be bothered by the year 2000 thing,” Leal said, referring to Jan. 1, 2000, when some older computers are predicted to go on the blink when their two-digit date fields jump from 99 to 00. “So if some city taxpayers think they’re going to get out of paying their bills, well, they’re making a big mistake.”

 

Other Feature Articles

Making San Francisco’s City Hall Smarter for the New Millennium, CEE News Special Report on DATACOM, page 14 July 1999

New Communications System to Boost Public Participation, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link, Institutional Construction Feb.99

San Francisco City Hall’s Seismic Salvation The $293 million restoration reaches the punch-list phase, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link Institutional Construction Feb.99

Timeline of History of San Francisco City Hall, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link Institutional Construction, page 16 Feb.99

Retooled City Hall Is Finally Ready To Open, San Francisco Chronicle Front Page January 1, 1999

A Treasury of City Hall Trivia, San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area Focus January 1, 1999

Light Years, San Francisco Examiner Magazine Page 7 January 3, 1999

Gold-Plated City Hall, San Francisco Examiner Front Page Dec. 30, 1998

S.F. Celebrates Floating City Hall, San Jose Mercury News Page 3b January 6, 1999

Ceitronics: wiring San Francisco for the 21st Century, San Jose and Silicon Valley Business Journal Page 14 January 15, 1999

Retrofitting “City Hall’, Systems Contractor News Front page, con’t page 17 September, 1998

City Hall by the Bay, Sound & Communications Front page, con’t page 18 February 18, 1999