Philadelphia, September 25,
2014 –
Mayor Michael A. Nutter received the report, Safety First and Foremost,
from the Special Independent Advisory Commission established to review and
evaluate the Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I). The report
includes 37 recommendations for the Department, ranging from organizational to
staffing and technology changes.
In addition, Mayor Nutter
announced the creation of the L&I Implementation and Accountability
Committee, which will convene on October 15th and will report on
December 31st, to oversee potential organizational and statutory
changes to the Department based on the Commission’s major
recommendations. Mayor Nutter also announced that he will shift L&I
under the organizational oversight of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public
Safety and created a new position related to L&I called the Chief Safety
Officer, whose duties will be to develop safety plans and to enforce the
Department’s safety standards and regulations related to construction and
demolition.
“I thank the members of the
Commission for working quickly and diligently to complete this report,” said
Mayor Nutter. “As the title of the report indicates, safety must always
be our first and foremost concern. In that spirit, I have
decided that it makes administrative and strategic sense to move
L&I, an agency whose central task is ensuring public safety, under the portfolio
of the Office of Public Safety. I’m also creating a new position related
to L&I called the Chief Safety Officer, who will report directly to the
Deputy Mayor and will actively participate in the implementation process of the
Special Commission’s recommendations. Additionally, our Administration
looks forward to evaluating those recommendations offered in the report in
great detail – and to ensure that this process is done smartly, I am
implementing one of the Commission recommendations right now: I am forming the
L&I Implementation and Accountability Committee to assess each
recommendation by posing the question: ‘is this change the best way to increase
public safety?’, because that is the ultimate goal of these recommendations.”
The report includes three
major proposals which would involve significant and complex changes to
government operations: separating L&I into two new departments, a
Department of Buildings and a Department of Business Compliance; enhancing
L&I by doubling the number of inspectors; and transferring the
responsibility for building fire safety inspections to the Fire Department.
“Today, the Mayor’s Special
Independent Advisory Commission calls for a break from the past and a bold step
forward for building safety in the City of Philadelphia,” said Glenn Corbett,
Chairman of the Commission. “As it stands today, L&I is burdened with an
ever-increasing set of responsibilities, many of which have nothing to do with
building safety. In the wake of the tragedy at 22nd and Market
Streets, our Commission is calling for the creation of a new Department of
Buildings led by a licensed engineer or registered architect. Building safety
must be job one in the new department. We believe that our set of over 30
recommendations will help guide the City of Philadelphia in carrying out its’
fundamental public safety role.”
The Commission report also
noted and endorsed many of the reforms that L&I has either implemented or
is currently working on which were initiated by City Council ordinance or
Mayoral Executive Order. Some of those recommendations include full
implementation and staffing of the Project eCLIPSE information system, building
demolition safety legislation, and creation of a vacant property task force
within L&I.
Source: Phila.gov
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