Call for splitting L&I gets split reaction from officials

A draft proposal to split Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections in two already has officials split on the idea - and whether the draft should be made public.

L&I should stay under one roof, said City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., who led a previous review of the department - albeit in "different rooms," as he put it.

"I think there's some sense to it," Councilman James Kenney said Friday of the proposed split. "There's different skill sets required for the public safety issue, and the revenue and giving of permits."

A draft report by the blue-ribbon panel Mayor Nutter created after the fatal 2013 Center City building collapse calls for getting rid of L&I and creating a safety-focused Department of Buildings, plus a second agency to handle licensing and other non-safety duties. Such moves would require a change in the City Charter.

Several officials who have been part of past examinations of L&I agreed on one point: The department needs more funding if it is to fulfill its public safety mission.

Jones, who chaired a special Council committee that looked at demolition practices after the collapse, said he believes L&I's various duties are related enough that it should remain one - as long as it is placed under the deputy mayor for public safety, who oversees the Police and Fire Departments. (The draft makes a similar recommendation for the proposed Building Department.)

"Even though it's the same house, there have to be different rooms," Jones said.

Kenney, who sat on the same committee, agreed with Jones that no matter what the structure is, the department needs more money. L&I has a budget of $27.6 million for 353 staff positions. Money was added last year for more inspectors and to keep up with the razing of condemned buildings.

While Nutter's special commission also concluded that the department is underfunded, the draft report sent to the mayor Monday does not address the cost of funding two new agencies, sources with knowledge of the draft said.

The sources said the draft also calls for having the Fire Department take over enforcement of the fire-safety code from L&I.

Officials involved in the study have repeatedly cautioned that the version Nutter received is still being revised before its public release, set for Thursday.

That date was not soon enough for City Controller Alan Butkovitz - who, like Kenney, has hinted at a run for mayor next year. The controller wrote to Nutter on Friday demanding that he release the current draft.

"I find it appalling that the report could be perceived as being put through a process where it is allowed to be stripped of its true findings and recommendations," Butkovitz wrote.

"You want the findings of this distinguished panel to get a full airing with the public," he said later. "You don't want it to be on Day 10 of a dribbling-out of bits and pieces."

Nutter was in Washington and unavailable for comment. "The administration has not yet received a final report from the commission, and frankly it would be disrespectful to the hardworking commission and its public-spirited volunteers to release its draft version," his spokesman, Mark McDonald, said in an e-mail. "It's unfortunate that some are playing political games with such an important matter."

The draft, roughly 50 pages, is the product of a 10-month review of L&I by the panel Nutter appointed after the June 5, 2013, collapse of a wall under demolition onto the Salvation Army thrift store at 22d and Market Streets, killing six.

Several reports since the collapse have made recommendations for improving L&I. Council's special committee looked at demolition safety. A grand jury examined L&I's policing of large vacant properties. Nutter tasked the 17-member Special Independent Advisory Commission to look at everything from L&I's structure to its operations, policies, and procedures.

L&I Commissioner Carlton Williams said he had not yet seen the report and declined to comment on whether the department should be split. Once the report is released, "we will respond appropriately," he said.

Williams said L&I has already implemented some of the previous recommendations, such as hiring 27 new inspectors, and is looking to hire a consultant to help implement new demolition-safety rules Council passed.

All the scrutiny hasn't affected his work or his staff's, he said.

"I think it's a good thing," Williams said.