Senate Bill S6948A

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6948

SPONSOR: HOYLMAN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in
relation to enacting the New York city department of buildings community
accountability act

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill creates the New York City Department of Buildings Community
Accountability Act.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 - Legislative findings.

Section 2 - Names this the NYC Department of Buildings Community
Accountability Act.

Section 3 - Amends section 28-103.18.1 of the NYC Administrative Code to
              

require that any information in the complaint book that is kept by DOB
and is available to the public be posted on the department's website
which shall be maintained by the city of New York, subject to such regu-
lations as the commissioner may prescribe.

Section 4 - Adds a new section 28-103.18.2 requiring the Department of
Buildings to maintain a record available for public inspection at their
office as well as on the department's website containing a list of all
construction and building accidents resulting in injury or death, and
all property damage due to damage arising out of violations of the
building code. All such accidents shall be investigated and a written
report of the findings must also be posted on the website, which shall
be maintained by the city of New York subject to the commissioner's
regulations.

Section 5 - Adds a new section 28-201.5 to require the department to
provide biannual reports to community boards and borough presidents on
the department's actions within their jurisdiction. The report shall
show all specified immediately hazardous and specified major violations,
the number of such violations corrected, enforcement actions commenced,
and the disposition of enforcement actions, within the period, separated
by community board and borough president. Such enforcement actions shall
include court actions, orders of closure, and environmental control
board actions and orders, including fines and penalties. The report
shall also show all unsafe building orders, vacate orders and stop work
orders issued.

Section 6 - Adds a new section 28-207.6 to require that whenever the
department issues an order regarding any dangerous conditions pursuant
to section 28-216.4 of the NYC Admin Code or any vacate order, that an
investigation be made as to the circumstances, and a report be written
and posted on the department's website describing these conditions. This
report shall be made available for the public to review and maintained
by the city of New York pursuant to such regulations as the commissioner
may prescribe.


Section 7 - This act shall take effect one year after it shall have
become law

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The Assembly Cities Committee has held hearings in the past and has
gathered information from audits and reports about construction in New
York City. The following are some of the facts we have uncovered which
call out for reform:

Construction Safety

The Federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration reported 80
deaths in New York City construction accidents between 2002 and 2005;
the New York Committee on Occupational Health and Safety reports that
construction is the most dangerous occupation, with death rates four
times the average for other workers.

The Construction Industry Partnership of New York City, a labor-manage-
ment alliance, estimates the cost of construction accidents in New York
City at $858 million in 2002. A review of 2,500 OSHA construction site
safety inspections in New York City in 2003, released by the New York
Trial Lawyers Institute in 2005, determined that two thirds of
inspections found at least one violation of a safety standard.  Accord-
ing to the Institute, OSHA classified virtually all the violations as
"serious".

Enforcement

The NYC DOB issued 49,000 ECB and 46,000 DOB violations in FY '06, and
in FY '05 issued 626 vacate orders.  A 2003 NYC Comptroller's audit
showed .67% of sampled construction plans that were submitted to the
Buildings Department through self-certification contained errors.

A 2004 New York City Comptroller's audit found that 51% of sampled ECB
building violations for 2002 were for hazardous violations and that no
evidence of a systematic DOB process existed for following up on hazard-
ous violations.

The DOB reported it re-inspected 11,548 hazardous violations in FY '05
and issued second violations in 17% of the re-inspections. No systemwide
public summary of violation outcomes exists that correlates the percent-
age of outstanding violations to how many are corrected, nor did DOB
report on enforcement outcomes at the September 7th Assembly hearing
despite questions to that effect in the hearing notice. A 2006 New York
State Comptroller's audit determined that NYC DOB tracking of enforce-
ment of stop work orders and violations was inadequate, in that DOB did
not have a database that provided correlation between stop work orders,
violations, and enforcement outcomes. DOB responded to the audit in an
April 2006 letter stating it was attempting to develop such a system.

The changes made in this bill will require the Department. of Buildings
to much more closely monitor construction sites around the City which
will better protect the residents as well as workers at the worksites.

While many people have called in complaints when they see illegal activ-
ities, they feel like their complaints are being ignored. This bill will
require the department to investigate and follow-up any illegal activ-
ities they find. By requiring the tracking of complaints and citations,
stop work orders, and other violations on the department's website, the
average citizen can see that their complaint is being investigated and
acted upon.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

A.7745B of 2007-08 A.4770A of 2009-10 A.1785 of 2011-12 A.5159 of 201314
A.3617 of 2015-16 A.4705 of 2017-18 A.3115a of 2019-2020

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
One year following enactment.