Lawmakers pressed the city’s Buildings Department on Tuesday to explain how the short-staffed agency will enforce sweeping new rules taking effect in the coming months even as it struggles to keep up with some of its current duties.
Mayor Eric Adams set aside $210 million for the Buildings Department in his latest budget proposal, which was the subject of Tuesday’s City Council hearing. But the agency remains leaner than it used to be — its current headcount of 1,584 is well short of the 1,861 positions the department had been allocated last year.
That alarms City Council members, since the Buildings Department will be charged with enforcing the major climate law Local Law 97 as well as the still-pending City of Yes for Economic Opportunity plan, which, if approved in its current form, would allow for new mixing of residential and commercial activities that will likely require tight regulation.
“It is extremely concerning to me that the administration has reduced DOB’s headcount as much as it has,” said Bronx Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez during Tuesday’s hearing.
The short-staffing has already impacted services: The wait time for construction inspections grew from 1.2 to 3 days during the first four months of the current fiscal year, and the time it took to respond to non-emergency complaints increased from 10.5 to 12.5 days.
Buildings Commissioner James Oddo insisted his agency is in good shape, although he repeatedly declined to say whether he has asked the mayor for more resources. The time it takes to review new building applications has decreased to an average of six days, and top-priority complaints about unsafe buildings are responded to within hours, he noted. A recent department study found DOB conducted a record 370,000 inspections during 2023 but issued fewer violations than in previous years, which Oddo called a sign of improving compliance by owners.
“There are some retrenchments, no doubt,” Oddo said. “But even with those retrenchments … the service levels continue to be strong.”
The department now has 525 inspectors along with 15 vacant positions, a far cry from the 711 inspector positions that DOB had budgeted for in 2022, Oddo told lawmakers.
Some help is on the way — Adams’ executive budget plan would devote $4 million to create 36 new full-time staffers at DOB to handle the extensive reports building owners must submit starting in 2025 to prove their compliance with Local Law 97. Laura Popa, DOB’s deputy commissioner of sustainability, explained that the agency currently has just three full-time staffers handling outreach for Local Law 97, which has included calling some 600 landlords who have the most work to do to reach compliance with the decarbonization policy.
“I think you need a couple more people,” responded Sanchez, who chairs the council’s Housing and Buildings committee.
As for City of Yes, Oddo told the council that his department is doing “a little bit more than a back-of-the-envelope estimation” to determine how much new staffing it needs to enforce the new policies.
“It will impact the agency across the board,” Oddo said of the Economic Opportunity package, which would allow commercial uses on the upper floors of residential buildings and let “clean” manufacturers open up in regular commercial districts. The package of zoning changes is now under consideration by the Council, which must vote by the end of May.
Even more strain would likely be put on the Buildings Department by the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity package, which would loosen zoning rules to permit more construction across the city and allow new flexibility for garage apartments and shared amenities. That wide-ranging plan just began its public review and could face a vote by the end of the year.
“The conversations with City Hall … are ongoing about that,” said Oddo, adding that the potential new staffing needs are not reflected in the upcoming budget for Fiscal Year 2025.
The Buildings Department had some of the highest turnover of any agency in recent months. Between July 2023 and January 2024, 175 people left the agency — a 68% increase from pre-pandemic attrition levels, according to a recent report by the state comptroller’s office.
The agency’s overall vacancy rate stood at 5% in March, down from a whopping 30% in May 2022. That’s in line with similar improvement at other city agencies, where a post-pandemic vacancy crisis has eased — although much of the improvement comes from Mayor Adams’ cost-saving decision to eliminate empty positions entirely.
Nick Garber , 2024-05-14 23:13:02
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