Thompson: 'Buildings' Falls Down On Follow-Up Checks; Hazardous Sites Not Re-Inspected

By ARI PAUL

City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. released an audit June 24 showing that the Department of Buildings had neglected to re-inspect hazardous buildings and construction sites.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James REBUILDING DOB: City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. suggested the Department of Buildings should hire more Inspectors and work more closely with the Law Department in order to ensure that buildings and construction sites are well-monitored. An audit from his office found numerous problems with inspections.

During a press conference, the Comptroller called the situation unacceptable and outlined several possible legal steps to improve matters.

'Pattern of Lax Enforcement'

"My auditors uncovered a pattern of problems exposing how lax enforcement and legal limitations are allowing dangerous conditions to continue," he said. "For example, my auditors reviewed 14 buildings which had three or more still-open hazardous violations issued between September 2003 and December 2004. This was a special program the Department of Buildings instituted. Of these 14, eight buildings had corrected the violations and six had yet to be resolved, and [for] five of these six buildings as of March 2008 the Department of Buildings had not taken any action for at least 11 months."

Mr. Thompson's audit also found that in September 2007 the department did not check 20 percent of buildings targeted for re-inspection because it "lacked the [legal] authority to gain access to property or take measures other than issue new violations."

The same day as the press conference, Mr. Thompson sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg asking for a series of administrative changes to address the issues cited in his audit.

"First, the New York City Administrative Code and the City Charter should be changed so that the DOB is better able to re-inspect properties and so that it may also use the issuance or non-issuance of permits as an enforcement tool," he said in the letter. "Second, DOB must immediately implement a re-inspection program for hazardous violations and aggressively pursue its follow-up efforts." But during the press conference, Mr. Thompson said it was not just legal challenges that hindered the improvement of safety standards.

"It's just plain old-fashioned neglect," he said, citing that Inspectors had failed to post re-inspection notices at only a third of the sites they targeted for re-inspection.

Calls for More Inspectors

He urged the DOB to make sure its program for re-inspecting buildings was more vigorous and work closely with the Law Department, in addition to suggesting that hiring more Inspectors would help.

"One common complaint I've heard across the City of New York is that there's a great need for more Building Inspectors, and I think the city would improve safety by increasing the number of Inspectors as well to makes sure that they're well-trained," he said.

In a response to the audit, the DOB said it agreed in general with most of the findings and recommendations and said that in some cases it was already taking steps to rectify the situation.