Plagued by a rash of fatal construction accidents and
widespread concern about public safety, the Bloomberg
administration and the City Council unveiled a 13-point
legislative package on Wednesday to broaden oversight of
building sites, increase fines for violations and register all
key contractors.
Companies with troubling safety records could have permits
suspended or revoked, stopping them from doing business if
they repeatedly violated the law. The legislation would also
give the city’s Buildings Department greater enforcement
power, including the ability to assign safety monitors to
sites with a history of hazardous violations.
At a City Hall news conference where he was flanked by
construction industry leaders, union officials and
legislators, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said an “unacceptably
high number” of fatalities demanded an “unprecedented” level
of reform. So far this year, 15 people have died in
construction-related accidents in the city, compared with 12
in all of 2007.
The effort, Mayor Bloomberg said, “will help enable the
Buildings Department to hold contractors accountable to their
safety records, and introduces new training requirements and
safety rules in key areas, including crane operations.
Building for the future and building safely are not mutually
exclusive. We can and will do both. But public safety is our
top priority.”
Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, who had worked to
develop the legislation, said, “We will not compromise on
safety,” even as construction continued. She said the Council
would work quickly to work out the details and pass the
legislation.
Although he described the proposals as badly needed, Scott
Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, later said they did
not go far enough. He called for an overhaul and expansion of
the Buildings Department.
“There aren’t enough inspectors,” Mr. Stringer said. “There
aren’t enough trained managers at the Buildings Department, or
a record of being able to do the inspections. If we’re going
to be able to improve construction safety protocols anytime
soon, then the next step is to transform the Buildings
Department.”
Mayor Bloomberg said the city planned to add 56 building
inspectors in coming months, to bring the total to 461, up
from 277 in January 2002. He said the department had issued
more than 1,200 stop-work orders and nearly 4,000 violations
in the past 12 months. Still, that has not put an end to
construction accidents, which have become a political
embarrassment for the administration. Buildings Commissioner
Patricia J. Lancaster resigned last month, despite her widely
acknowledged role in improving the department.
The mayor and Ms. Quinn are also looking to overturn a
section of the City Charter requiring the building
commissioner to be a licensed architect or an engineer. The
Building Congress, an industry group, as well as many
architects and engineers, are opposed, saying the commissioner
needs to understand the intricacies of construction. The mayor
said that the requirement was making it hard to find a new
commissioner and that the most important requirement was that
the commissioner be a good manager.
The acting commissioner, Robert D. LiMandri, is a trained
engineer but does not have a license.
The Bloomberg administration had proposed licensing general
contractors, as well as demolition and concrete
subcontractors, a process that would include background
checks. The construction industry resisted that idea, saying
it would not improve safety, but could eliminate three or four
of the five concrete suppliers in the city because they might
not be able to meet the requirements.
The construction industry was not thrilled with the
compromise — to register contractors and require the
corporations to identify their principals — but accepted it
after a crane accident on Friday in which two workers died at
a construction site on East 91st Street. Seven people died in
a crane accident on March 15.
“I may not have liked it, but after the second accident,
it’s kind of hard not to accept some of the proposals that the
city’s put forth,” said Louis J. Coletti, president of the
Building Trades Employers Association. “The last couple of
months have shown that this process is broken.”
