City Budget
Philadelphia City Council members grilled officials from the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections. Testifying at today's budget hearing, department heads were largely unable to provide council with answers.
By Shai Ben-Yaacov
WHYY News, April 7, 2008
L&I, as the department is known, is behind on some of its core functions - inspecting and boarding up abandoned houses - but just how backlogged seems to be anybody's guess. Or so Councilman Rizzo was told in answer to his question during the hearing.
"If you're behind, somebody has a feeling of how significant it is," said Rizzo. "I don't need to know it's six months, two hours, and 43 minutes. Do we have a problem or don't we?"
Acting Commissioner of Licenses and Inspections, John Elfrey, says it's an issue his department is looking at.
"I've asked Deputy Commissioner [Dominic] Verdi and Deputy Commissioner [Eileen] Evans to compile a list of what we are behind in," replied Elfrey.
While acknowledging that Elfrey, who has been on the job for three months, has inherited a difficult situation, Rizzo also said that it's not hard to see many of the city's problems as stemming from the department's inefficiencies - particularly when it comes to abandoned houses.
"They are just terrible for a community. They breed crime," said Rizzo. "I wouldn't want to live on a block that had a boarded up house and I don't expect the people that I represent to live near a house that's not appropriately sealed and cleaned."
For their part, L&I officials said that they have 25 vacant positions, 9 of which are for building inspectors. They expect to fill the positions within three months.
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