Yesterday, NBC10.com, posted a list of questions that journalists, readers, and viewers want answered in the wake of the Market Street building collapse. Among the question listed was one we partially addressed on this blog:
Q: What are the qualifications of L&I employees? Is the man that runs L&I an engineer? If not, are people who hold this type of position in other major U.S. cities qualified engineers? Is a structural engineer even reviewing demolition requests?
L&I employees have no formal training in structural engineering or the structural integrity of buildings and are not required to be engineers. Indeed, the current head of L&I, Cartlon Williams, apparently is not an engineer and has no formal training in construction. According to his bio, Mr. Williams began his career as a community organizer of sorts with a penchant for green initiatives. Mr. Williams’ does not mention his educational background.
How does Mr. Williams’ credentials stack up to his peer in New York? Not well. The Head of New York City’s Department of Buildings, the NYC equivalent of L&I, is Robert LiMandri. Unlike Mr. Williams, Mr. LiMandri has a mechanical engineering degree and has spent his entire career in the construction and real estate. While Mr. Williams was organizing green programs, Mr. LiMandri was working as the Director of a real estate and construction consulting firm as a Vice President at Jones Lang LaSalle, an international real estate firm.
L&I serves a vital role in insuring the safety and welfare of our residents and visitors. It is simply unacceptable that the Department tasked with such an important role as building safety can be staffed by patronage appointees lacking the proper credentials. We would hardly tolerate the City Law Department being chaired and staffed by a non-lawyers and we should not tolerate the head of L&I not being an engineer. Hopefully, Mayor Nutter heads the advice of his favorite Presidential candidate and “not let a good crisis go to waste.” He can start by changing the way L&I conducts business.
Wally Zimolong
Wally represents contractors (and subcontractors) and developers. His clients build and develop residential, commercial, and industrial properties nationwide. Wally enjoys working with the owners of the businesses he represents because they tend to be entrepreneurs and all around interesting people.
