TO MANY people, the Department of Licenses and
Inspections personifies what is wrong with a big-city bureaucracy. Stodgy, slow
to react and hard to reach, it is blamed both for being too zealous and too lax
when it comes to enforcement.
The tragic June 2013 collapse of a building at 22nd and
Market streets was widely seen as confirmation of L&I's incompetence.
Six people were killed and 13 injured when the wall of
the building being demolished fell into the Salvation Army store next door.
How could L&I miss the warning signs that the
demolition was a botch job? How could it even give a permit to the fly-by-night
contractor hired by the owner to demolish the buildings?
Those questions and others were handed to a 22-member
special advisory commission appointed by Mayor Nutter, who were tasked to find
out what was wrong with L&I and ways to fix it.
Anyone hoping to come away with their dim view of L&I
confirmed will be disappointed by the commission's report, which was released
late last month.
To the members of this task force, L&I is more sinned
against than sinning.
Although they recommend that the department be split up
into two agencies - one to deal with building construction and safety, and
another to handle L&I's other functions - the task force is clear that the
underlying problem isn't simply a matter of the structure of the department.
As the report succinctly puts it:
"Bottom line: L&I budget is too low, the job responsibilities too
large and its personnel underpaid."
An example: The commission found that
L&I building inspectors each have a caseload of 600 to 700 projects. A
recent L&I directive told them to visit each site every 21 days. To meet
that goal, an inspector would have to visit 25 sites a day - which is
impossible.
Workloads in comparable cities that the
commission looked at are lower and more manageable, and the pay is higher -
anywhere from $11,000 to $13,000 higher than in Philly.
No wonder the commission found that morale at the agency
is as low as it can go.
The situation at L&I is a symptom of a larger trend.
In recent years, the city has cut back on the budgets of a number of
departments that make up City Hall's central bureaucracy - a list that includes
such departments as L&I, Revenue, the Law Department and others.
In 2002, L&I had 456 employees. Today, it is budgeted
for 320.
Adjusted for inflation, the L&I budget has gone down
15 percent during the same time span.
These departments aren't considered as vital as the
Police and Fire departments. City revenues haven't kept up with inflation,
while the cost of government has gone up higher than inflation - led by large
increases in pension and health costs.
Nutter has taken the first step at restoring L&I. The
department has approval to hire two-dozen new inspectors this year.
The budgets of L&I and other city agencies have been
squeezed and squeezed again.
We all want vigorous and responsive city agencies. The
inconvenient truth is that agencies like L&I need more money and personnel
to meet that goal.
As the commission's report makes clear, we can't do more
with less.
Source: Philly.com
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