Collapse of a bureaucracy

Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections is an overwhelmed, poorly managed, and perennially starved watchdog. Its employees, buried under as many as 700 cases each, struggle to make an impact. Inadequate enforcement of building codes ensures that public safety suffers while shady contractors and slumlords thrive.

This intolerable situation has come under the welcome scrutiny of a grand jury and a study commission in the wake of the June 2013 building collapse at 22d and Market Streets. Caused by shoddy demolition, the disaster killed six and injured 13.

Mayor Nutter and City Council responded to the collapse by improving demolition standards. But another collapse at Third and Market Streets in March - where, fortunately, no one was injured - was among the signs that more has to be done.

Now Nutter is considering an exhaustive report on L&I from the study commission. It recommends splitting the department, which risks adding bureaucracy and diminishing efficiency. More promising are its calls for more and better-trained staff, management improvements, and completion of a sluggish software update. Without the new software, L&I can't even say how many vacant and dangerous buildings are in the city, never mind where they're located.

L&I's historical incompetence and corruption have been well-documented in criminal cases. They include convictions of inspectors who casually took bribes as small as $10, as well as allegations that a supervisor protected bars from enforcement as long as they patronized his beer distributorship.

The city's inspector general developed the information that led to the indictment of a deputy commissioner on those charges. But City Council is sitting on a bill to make the inspector general's office permanent. If Council wants L&I and other agencies to be cleaned up, it will pass the legislation.

Most importantly, Nutter has vowed to oversee a continuing reorganization of the department with an emphasis on public safety. Voters who want the same will demand that the candidates to succeed the mayor also show an interest in addressing corruption and incompetence at L&I and throughout the city.