Question Top Building Job Waiver

By ARI PAUL

Professional organizations voiced their opposition May 7 to a bill that would alter the City Charter to allow someone who is not a licensed engineer or registered architect to be the Commissioner of the Department of Buildings.

Mayor Bloomberg is pushing the bill, which was discussed at last week's City Council's Government Operations Committee hearing, in order to enlarge the group of qualified candidates for Buildings Commissioner. Patricia Lancaster resigned April 22 from her position as Commissioner a month after a crane collapsed at a Manhattan construction site killing seven people, and a week after she told a City Council hearing that permits for the building there were mistakenly issued.

'Must Be Done By Engineer'

Marc Chiffert, the incoming president of the New York City chapter of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, testified that the duties of the Commissioner were inherently technical.

"Final decisions regarding Building Code interpretation, public health and safety and construction site safety procedures rest with the DOB Commissioner," he said in written testimony. "This authority to provide final interpretation of the building and construction codes does constitute the practice of engineering and by [New York State] statute must be performed by a[n] NYS-licensed professional engineer."

Mr. Chiffert continued, "The DOB Commissioner must understand first-hand the contractual relationships among expediters, shop drawing designers, crane and scaffolding support designers, and other professionals in the construction inspection process."

The Mayor's Office has said that licensed professionals working under the Commissioner would address technical issues if the bill was enacted.