City releases some records on building collapse

After weeks of withholding records related to the Center City building collapse, the Nutter administration reversed course Friday, releasing hundreds of pages of e-mails, inspection reports, and other documents, and posting them on a city website.

The administration continued to insist that "some or all of these records" might be exempt from disclosure under state law. But the mayor's office said "the city has, in its discretion, concluded that the public interest is better served by their release."

Many of the documents released had already been obtained by reporters. Among them was a May 22 e-mail from the building's owners to Alan Greenberger, deputy mayor and city commerce director, warning about "a situation that poses a threat to life and limb," and pre-demolition inspection reports that stated, incorrectly, that there was no asbestos in the building being torn down.

The newly released documents include reports to the Health Department's division of air management services from a different asbestos inspector that described widespread asbestos in the debris from sources including pipe insulation, floor tiles, roofing, plaster, and wall coverings.

Despite public complaints about the demolition project dating to May 8, nearly a month before the June 5 wall collapse, there is no indication building inspectors visited the site while demolition was taking place.

But the documents show that an inspector from the Health Department visited the site May 23 to cite the demolition contractor, Griffin Campbell, for asbestos found in his trash bin. Campbell said someone had put the material into his truck and it had not come from the building.

After the collapse, the records show, building inspectors visited the site and issued citations for unsafe conditions not only to STB Investments Corp., the building owner, but also to the Salvation Army, whose thrift shop at 22d and Market Streets was crushed by the four-story wall.

Six people died in the accident and 14 were injured.

The documents released Friday include more than 300 pages of increasingly urgent e-mail messages from agents of building owner Richard Basciano, pushing city officials and the Salvation Army to permit rapid demolition of the structures on the 2100 block of Market Street.

The e-mails also show Basciano's continuing efforts to persuade the city to relocate a firehouse from the 2100 block of Market to the 2200 block and the Salvation Army to move its store to make way for Basciano's redevelopment efforts.

City officials agreed to meetings on Basciano's proposals, but the documents gave no indication of any imminent agreement to move the firehouse.

The correspondence was largely conducted by Thomas Simmonds Jr., the property manager for Basciano; Alex Wolfington, the real estate marketing agent for Basciano; John Mondlak, Greenberger's deputy; and Maj. Charles Deitrick, a Salvation Army official based in Nyack, N.Y.

The documents are divided into four categories: e-mails on which Greenberger or Mondlak were copied; Health Department records dealing with asbestos on the properties being demolished; Licenses and Inspections records showing no visits or violations at the site until after the collapse; and a previously publicized letter from the District Attorney's Office to City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith saying its investigation into the accident should not interfere with the public release of any documents considered public records before the investigation began.

"Once the District Attorney's Office notified us last week that the integrity of its grand jury investigation would not be compromised by our release of the information requested, we were able to begin making these documents available," Smith said in the statement released by the mayor's office. "We are pleased to be able to do so in a way that provides access to anyone who might be interested, not just to those who have requested the information."

City Controller Alan Butkovitz attributed the administration turnabout to media pressure.

"There's been tremendous public pressure and interest and concern about correcting the conditions that brought about this accident," he said, "and it was inevitable that eventually these documents would see the light of day. A lot of credit belongs to The Inquirer and the media in relentlessly pursuing this issue."

The Nutter administration continues to withhold other material of potential relevance, including two brief videos that L&I inspector Ronald Wagenhoffer recorded before his apparent suicide, and settlement memos describing city payments for past demolition-related civil claims.

Contributing to this report were Inquirer staff writers Paul Nussbaum, Dylan Purcell, Mark Fazlollah, and Troy Graham.