Reposted from the NYTimes
Audit Says Follow-Up on Buildings Is Lacking
By SEWELL CHAN
The city’s Department of Buildings, which has already been the object of intense scrutiny over fatal construction accidents and accusations of corruption, is facing more criticism.
On Tuesday, City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. released an audit finding that the department had repeatedly failed to make sure that hazardous conditions were fixed.
Among the notable findings:
¶The department failed to reinspect 20 percent of the properties due for reinspection as part of its Hazardous Re-inspection Program, because inspectors could not gain access to the properties.
¶The department failed to reinspect 5 of 14 buildings with three or more still-open hazardous violations for more than 11 months. The buildings were selected as part of its Multi-Hazardous Re-Inspection Program.
¶The department has not strengthened its existing programs or used its power to issue building permits as an effective enforcement tool.
“It is simply unacceptable that D.O.B. has permitted buildings with multiple open hazardous violations to go un-inspected for years,” Mr. Thompson, who is expected to run for mayor in 2009, said in a statement. “Even by D.O.B.’s admission, these are the worst cases, yet it has stood by and let the violations go unchecked and put New Yorkers at risk. The Department of Buildings’ violation enforcement is crucial to ensuring that buildings in the city are being constructed safely and pose no risks to area residents.”
The audit found that the department’s efforts to follow up on violations “were less than adequate not only because of deficiencies in the execution of its programs, but also because the agency is limited in its ability to compel property owners to remedy violations on their property.”
For example, in September 2007, the department issued 1,449 hazardous violations citations through an entity known as the Environmental Control Board.
Follow-up inspections found that 845 properties had no new violations, while 312 of the hazardous conditions still existed, resulting in additional citations. For the remaining 292 violations, inspectors could not gain access to the properties.
Mr. Thompson’s office found that inspectors left the required form, requesting that the property owner call the department to reschedule the reinspection, for only 100 of the 292 properties.
Mr. Thompson said the department should ensure that inspectors are leaving the forms and do more to follow up on the buildings in question.
The auditors also looked at the department’s Multi-Hazardous Re-Inspection program.
The audit reviewed 14 buildings that had at least three hazardous violations still open during the time period studied. The citations had been issued from September 2003 to December 2004. Of the 14, eight had corrected the violations, and six had yet to be resolved.
Of those still unresolved, as of March 2008, the department had not taken any action for 11 months since at least April 2007 for five of the six buildings. In one case, the last recorded action was in October 2005 — two and a half years earlier.
Finally, the auditors examined the department’s self-certification audit program, which requires that 10 percent of randomly selected properties be reinspected. The audit found that the department did not check on compliance for one-third of the 1,628 self-certifications randomly selected.
Furthermore, of the 31 cases in which the department did find violations that were not corrected, it “took no further action and did not issue false certification violations against 17,” or 55 percent of the cases.
In a response, the department said it had already begun to carry out the 11 recommendations of Mr. Thompson’s report, saying, “The content of these recommendations has helped the department review and strengthen our procedures."
Engineer Is Charged in Fatal Wall Collapse
A licensed engineer was charged Thursday with filing fraudulent plans with the city’s Department of Buildings in connection with a Brooklyn construction site where the collapse of earth and debris killed a day laborer in March.
The owner of the site was indicted on June 12 on manslaughter charges in connection with the collapse. The charges come at a time when the authorities are placing intense scrutiny on construction safety after a string of fatal accidents at building sites.
The engineer, Abraham Hertzberg, 86, of Kings Point, N.Y., faces nine first-degree counts of offering a false instrument for filing, a felony. If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison on each count.
Mr. Hertzberg’s lawyer, Kevin Keating of Garden City, N.Y., said his client would plead not guilty. “The D.A. conceded in court today that Abe Hertzberg has no responsibility for the tragic death of this individual,” Mr. Keating said. “He was not charged with manslaughter or any other charges like that.”
According to the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, William Lattarulo, the owner of the construction site, hired an architect in 2005 to design plans to build a laundry at the site, at 791-793 Glenmore Avenue in East New York. The architect subcontracted the work to Mr. Hertzberg, a professional engineer with Sanchez Associates.
According to the indictment, Mr. Hertzberg had previously lost his authority to self-certify architectural designs and used a stamp belonging to his partner, Louis Sanchez, to certify them in Mr. Sanchez’s name. He also placed Mr. Sanchez’s signature on several documents filed in support of Mr. Lattarulo’s applications for building permits, according to the district attorney.
At the time, Mr. Sanchez was recovering from a severe brain injury and “lacked the physical ability to review or certify architectural designs,” Mr. Hynes’s office said Thursday in a statement.
After getting the necessary permits, Mr. Lattarulo began construction of the building. On the morning of March 12, a worker, Lauro Ortega, 30, was digging the foundation in a trench beside a house that Mr. Lattarulo also owned. The laundry’s foundation was to be much deeper than that of the house, requiring that the house’s foundation be underpinned to prevent a collapse.
According to the authorities, Mr. Lattarulo was warned by a consultant that the new foundation was unstable. Instead, the authorities said, Mr. Lattarulo told Mr. Ortega to keep digging.
Moments later, part of a wall from the house collapsed and spilled rubble onto Mr. Ortega, killing him. A second worker was injured.
Last week, Mr. Lattarulo was charged with manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in the case.
Robert D. LiMandri, the acting buildings commissioner, said in a statement on Thursday: “We will not tolerate anyone who puts the safety of others at risk by filing false documents and deliberately misleading the buildings department. Today’s arrest demonstrates that those who do so will face serious consequences.”
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