Declaring that safety has to be the top priority, a City Council committee on Thursday urged dozens of changes in the way the city oversees demolition projects.
"The committee believes these reforms are both workable and essential if the city is to avoid future catastrophes," the Council panel said in a 69-page report spurred by the Center City building collapse that killed six people in June.
Its 71 recommendations - all but a handful unanimous - include site-safety plans for every demolition project, safety training requirements for every worker on every demolition site, an independent site-safety manager monitoring the demolition of any building more than three stories high, an expanded inspection force at the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, and a more prominent role for the city Fire Department, with expanded authority to enforce building and health codes.
The proposals would require major changes in city laws and regulations.
Curtis Jones Jr., chairman of the special Council committee, said five bills would be introduced next week to serve as vehicles for legislative action, but the details are still to be negotiated with the mayor, whose response to the report Thursday was somewhat muted.
In a statement, Mayor Nutter praised Council for its hard work and promised cooperation but made no commitments.
"Mayor Nutter has received Council's Report on Demolition Practices & Procedures and he greatly appreciates the hard work that Council members did over the summer in the wake of last June's terrible tragedy," the statement said. "The administration cooperated with Council's committee during the hearing process and in preparation of the report and looks forward to working with Council going forward."
Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez, a member of the panel and chairman of Council's committee on licenses and inspections, said many of Council's proposals would codify safety reforms the mayor adopted June 7, two days after the building collapse.
She predicted measures incorporating many of the new proposals would be passed by Christmas.
The committee was split on at least four of the 71 specific recommendations: proposals to establish a "worker identification system" to track contractors and their employees, the levels of training to be required for workers and license applicants, and a proposal to require all independent contractors involved in demolition projects to have a Philadelphia demolition license.
Throughout the Council hearings, organized labor representatives pushed for stronger identification of the contractors and employees on job sites. But some Council members worry that those proposals could undermine access to jobs in the construction industry.
The report said further discussion and negotiations on those points would be held during the legislative process.
The city's Building Industry Association declined to comment on the report immediately.
Joe Grace, director of public policy for the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, said the group was concerned about the possible cost of the proposed regulations.
But after this summer's events, he said, "the chamber strongly supports a renewed emphasis on public safety in construction projects."
Among other recommendations, the Council report says the city should reverse a recent practice of cross-training inspectors in the Department of Licenses and Inspections to handle all sorts of construction issues and encourage individual inspectors to develop specialized expertise.
It also urges expanded public access to demolition license and permit information, site-safety plans, engineering studies and asbestos disclosures, among other documents to be posted on L&I's website.
Six people died and 14 were injured June 5 when a four-story brick wall, part of a building under demolition at 2136 Market St., collapsed onto a Salvation Army thrift shop next door.
Though that tragedy was widely publicized, the Council report noted three more demolition and construction incidents in the next two months: the failure of a retaining wall at a demolition site in Bella Vista that damaged four neighboring properties and displaced eight residents; a structural failure at a seven-story building under construction at 12th and Berks Streets in North Philadelphia that injured one worker and temporarily trapped five others; and the collapse of a vacant house at 36th Street and Fairmount Avenue in West Philadelphia before scheduled demolition had begun.
"Each of these project sites was permitted and inspected by the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections," the report said. "The unavoidable conclusion was that the city's permitting and inspection process fell short of what was necessary to protect the public."
Council President Darrell Clarke proposed the special committee and appointed Jones to chair the probe. The other panel members were Jannie L. Blackwell, Bobby Henon, James F. Kenney, and Sánchez.
The committee held five hearings over the summer, taking testimony from dozens of witnesses, including city officials, engineering and insurance experts, union safety officials, and the public. Its report – unusually comprehensive for a Council investigation – was written by Jones' chief counsel, Stacey J. Graham.
Robert J. Mongeluzzi, a lawyer representing eight collapse victims or their survivors, endorsed the committee's major recommendations but urged several more. He recommended creation of an independent commission of recognized experts to review L&I operations, a new requirement that the head of L&I be a licensed professional engineer, and elimination of "expediters," paid to obtain permits without identifying the contractors lined up to work.
The full report is available at here…
Source: Philly.com
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