TESTIMONY
Jimmy Oddo, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, on the Department's Fiscal Year 2025 Preliminary Budget and Performance Initiatives
2:27:00
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16 min
Commissioner Jimmy Oddo presents the New York City Department of Buildings' fiscal year 2025 preliminary budget and discusses the department's performance and priority initiatives.
- The fiscal year 2025 preliminary budget allocates approximately $179 million to the department, with $149 million for personal services supporting 1,627 budgeted positions.
- Construction job filings have slightly increased, while average review times have decreased across the board in the last fiscal year.
- The department is implementing Local Law 97 of 2019, which requires the city's largest buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Oddo highlights initiatives to improve building safety, including new regulations for parking structure inspections following a collapse in Lower Manhattan.
- The department is conducting a comprehensive review of uncorrected summonses and considering ways to hold property owners accountable for building maintenance.
Jimmy Oddo
2:27:00
Good afternoon.
2:27:01
Cheah Sanchez and members of the housing and buildings committee.
2:27:07
I've uttered a lot of words in this room and on the chamber's floor in the side of the building, some of them rational over the years.
2:27:16
I've never been known to be someone at a loss of words, but I have to tell you it is a surreal experience to be before you madam chairman, before a committee that I was a a member of for a very long time.
2:27:31
I was part of the Castle family for 22 years 7 as a staff for a 15 or so as an elected.
2:27:39
I've sat on the floor, and I'll say it again.
2:27:41
It was a transformative experience.
2:27:44
It broke me out of my little bubble of Staten Island.
2:27:46
It introduced me to people who were different than I was really for the first time in my life, and it made me a better person despite being angry and frustrated many and occasion in this room and budget negotiating team and Other than the day that we lost James Davis, I never had a bad day in this building.
2:28:06
And again, it's an honor to be here.
2:28:11
Before you.
2:28:12
As you can see behind me, there are lots of men and women of DOB.
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I was always impressed when I was a member.
2:28:19
When commissioners and agencies came in with a a big group of folks.
2:28:24
To me, it was a sign of respect It meant as busy as those women and men were.
2:28:29
They thought that this was the place they needed to be.
2:28:32
And I asked the team to be here because I want them to hear your questions.
2:28:36
I want them to hear the urgency in your voice, and I I want them to have as many facts as possible as we try to achieve a mutual agenda.
2:28:48
We roll heavy, as I say, at DOB, because it's my management style.
2:28:52
I like being surrounded by really smart people.
2:28:55
And my management style is to empower them.
2:28:57
So you're gonna hear from the folks at the day is maybe speak a little bit more than a usual commissioner.
2:29:03
It's partly because it's my management style.
2:29:06
It's also partly in all candor because I come here with a good dose of humility.
2:29:12
I've been at this agency 10 months, 11 months.
2:29:15
These folks have forgotten more than it'll take a lifetime for me to know.
2:29:18
And I want them here because I want you to get the is that you deserve and you should hear.
2:29:23
I want you to get complete answers.
2:29:25
So to my right is Gus Serakis deputy commissioner for technical affairs and strategic initiatives.
2:29:33
To my left is Guillermo Petino, who is the deputy commissioner for policy and legal affairs.
2:29:39
To his left is Gina Yugate, who is our assistant commissioner for financial management.
2:29:45
At the next table, there's another sort of homecoming here and the council on that was someone who was a superstar when she was here.
2:29:53
She's a superstar on our agency.
2:29:55
That's Laura Pope, who is our DC for sustainability and when you ask very difficult questions on local O 97, Laura is going to feel those tough questions.
2:30:06
And also is Yigal Shamash, who is our chief structural engineer and an assistant commissioner for structural engineering compliance.
2:30:19
So again, madam chair, members of the committee.
2:30:22
My name is Jimmy Otto.
2:30:23
I'm the Commissioner in New York City Department of Buildings.
2:30:27
We are pleased to be here to discuss fiscal year 2025 preliminary budget as well as the department's performance and priority initiatives.
2:30:35
I was appointed commissioner for the department in late April of last year and it's been an honor to lead the agency's dedicated public servants since that time.
2:30:45
I was clear when I accepted this appointment that keeping buildings and construction sites safe would be my top priority, and that is what we focus on for the past 10 months, including rising to the occasion to protect New Yorkers in the aftermath of major building and construction incidents.
2:31:01
I found out early in my tenure that department is replete with professionals which made my work to identify internal talent to take on leadership roles at the agency clear from the start.
2:31:12
We've built out the right team to fulfill the department's mandate and that has been key to serving New Yorkers and pushing forward our priorities over the past few months.
2:31:21
The department's duty to regulate the built environment which includes nearly 1,100,000 existing buildings and tens of thousands of active construction sites would not happen without the people who work at the department.
2:31:34
I thank our team for all of their hard work to keep those who live work and visit the city safe.
2:31:42
Turning now to the budget fiscal year 2025 preliminary budget allocates approximately 179,000,000 dollars in expense funds to the department.
2:31:52
Of this funding, approximately $149,000,000 is for personal services, which supports 1627 budgeted positions and nearly 30,000,000 is for other than personal services, which primarily supports contractual services, equipment, and supplies.
2:32:10
This funding is critical to supporting the department's mandates and priorities.
2:32:15
In fiscal year 2023, the last full fiscal year, approximately 289 construction jobs are filed with the department.
2:32:23
And we issued approximately 1800 initial and renewal construction permits combined.
2:32:28
This represents a slight uptick in construction job filings from the previous fiscal year.
2:32:33
Despite the uptick in filings, the average time to review filings decreased across the board last fiscal year including for new building applications and for major and minor alterations.
2:32:44
So far this fiscal year, we are seeing a slight decrease in job filings compared to the beginning of the last fiscal year and a slight increase in the time it takes the department to review such filings with customers waiting just under 3 days for their job filings to be reviewed.
2:33:00
This slight uptick in time in the time that it takes the department to review filings can be attributed to an increase in the number of resubmissions after the department conducts an initial review of the filing and issues objections.
2:33:14
Our goal is to continue to properly complete our initial plan reviews and to ensure that customers know what to expect when their plans are being reviewed by continuing to train our plan examiners to ensure that plan review is efficient and consistent.
2:33:30
Notably, the number of construction jobs filed online and DOB now continues to grow year over year as we continue to shift from the buildings information system, the Biz system, a 3 decades old mainframe system.
2:33:44
Nearly 90% of construction jobs are currently being filed in DOB now.
2:33:49
When the original scope is fully implemented, DOB now will allow our customers to conduct all that business with the department online which will lead to greater efficiency and more transparency by allowing building owners, business owners, design professionals and contractors to determine exactly where a construction project is in the approval process.
2:34:11
The wait time between a construction inspection request and an inspection which incurs after a construction project is completed by a contractor, also continues to be short.
2:34:21
While there's been an uptick in the time it takes for a development inspection to be completed due to an increased demand for inspections and budgetary constraints.
2:34:30
Such inspections are still being completed within 3 days of a request in most instances, which includes inspections involving general construction, electric work, and plumbing work.
2:34:41
This progress on development inspection service levels can be attributed to the efficiencies gained from DOB now, which allows for all types of development inspections to be scheduled online.
2:34:53
This makes it easier for our customers to schedule inspection appointments and offers more precise inspection scheduling.
2:35:01
We also continued to respond to complaints from members of the public expeditiously.
2:35:06
We are responding to the most serious complaints, priority a complaints, which are those complaints that relate to conditions that may present an immediate threat to the public within hours.
2:35:18
We are responding to priority b complaints, which capture violating conditions that if occurring while serious do not present an immediate threat to the public within 12 days.
2:35:29
As a result of responding to these complaints, and our proactive inspections concerning as a result of responding to these complaints and our proactive inspections concerning construction safety we issued approximately 46100 Oak Summons' last fiscal year.
2:35:44
This is a decrease from the previous year and can be attributed to education campaigns by the department intended to provide more transparency to the construction industry regarding conditions that will result in enforcement action being taken, greater adherence to construction regulations by the industry and the continued implementation of the homeowner relief program, which provides small property owners with the opportunity to address violating conditions before receiving a summons and monetary penalties.
2:36:16
To ensure the safety regulations are being complied with at construction sites, The department continues to conduct proactive, unannounced inspections of larger construction sites.
2:36:26
Last fiscal year, the department conducted approximately 100 and ED enforcement inspections, which was 15,000 more inspections than the previous year.
2:36:35
Despite conducting more inspections and finding fewer violating conditions, During such inspections, the number of construction related incidents that resulted in injury or fatality to a worker increased last fiscal year.
2:36:49
Notably, the number of work of falls that did not result in enforcement action being taken by the department.
2:36:56
Which means violating conditions were not discovered during our inspection, increased last fiscal year.
2:37:03
This is a troubling trend that the department is investigating further to determine how the issues that resulted in increased work or falls can be addressed.
2:37:14
The department urges the construction industry to be more vigilant so this troubling trend can be reversed.
2:37:21
The department is also fulfilling its obligation to address greenhouse gas emissions coming from buildings.
2:37:26
We are well positioned with a dedicated team of energy and sustainability experts to support the city's goal of achieving carbon neutrality.
2:37:34
In addition to enforcing the energy code and existing laws that require certain buildings to report their energy and water use and to perform retro commissioning, we are also implementing the climate Climate Mobilization Act which includes local law 97 of 2019.
2:37:51
Local law 97 requires the city's largest buildings to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions over several compliance periods, culminating in achieving net 0 emissions by 2050.
2:38:05
The department is working diligently to fully implement local law 97 and has released rules and guidance to inform property owners about how to comply with the law when they start reporting their progress to the department on May 1, 2025.
2:38:19
This year, we will continue to engage in rulemaking and on the ground implementation.
2:38:24
The administration is committed to supporting building owners as they work to come into compliance.
2:38:30
While I'm proud of the strong service levels, we are maintaining for both our customers and members of the public filing complaints, we are also taking significant steps to improve quality of life for New Yorkers and improve building and construction safety.
2:38:43
Last summer the mayor announced gets shut down, the get sheds down plan, a multifaceted approach to removing sidewalk sheds more quickly, while reimagining the sidewalk sheds that are needed to protect the public and in connection with construction work.
2:39:00
This builds upon the work of the department to address long standing sidewalk sheds including performing regular inspections and taking legal action to hold building owners accountable for maintaining their buildings.
2:39:12
Since the mayor mayor's plan was announced, we have released solicitations in connection with 2 major initiatives which includes redesigning sidewalk sheds to make them less obtrusive and more aesthetically pleasing and to study local law 11 which requires buildings greater than 6 stories in height to have their facades inspected periodically.
2:39:33
We have also released guidance to the construction industry regarding the use of netting and lieu of sidewalk sheds and rules regarding the installation of art on sidewalk sheds.
2:39:43
Key proposals to the plan require legislative action, and we look forward to working with this this committee to pursue those changes in the future.
2:39:53
We have also taken steps to strengthen our regulations and hold bad actors accountable in the aftermath of major building incidents that occurred last year.
2:40:01
Which included a parking structure collapse in Lower Manhattan, and the partial collapse of the building in the Bronx alluded to by the chair.
2:40:09
Following the parking structure collapse in Manhattan, we immediately revisited our regulations to require that every parking structure be inspected by a design professional this year, which significantly sped up the timeline for certain parking structures Some of which would some of which would not have been inspected until 2027.
2:40:28
Additionally, we revised our regulations to require that an engineer be responsible for performing annual observations for such parking structures.
2:40:38
So far, we are seeing promising compliance with the 1st sub cycle of the requirement to conduct parking structure inspections, which apply to buildings in Lower Manhattan.
2:40:48
We encourage all owners of parking structures not to delay complying with this important requirement as we are committed to holding owners accountable until they achieve compliance.
2:41:01
Following the partial building collapse, in the Bronx, we conducted a sweep of all the properties owned by the owner of the building to determine whether any violating conditions existed at such buildings.
2:41:12
Further, we moved to swiftly suspend inspection privileges for the engineer who conducted the last facade inspection at the building.
2:41:20
Last month, we entered into a settlement agreement with the engineer, which resulted in a 2 year suspension of their privileges conduct for solid inspections.
2:41:29
Are currently reviewing existing regulations related to the qualifications of industry professionals who perform such facade inspections to determine if they are if there are any opportunities to strengthen registration requirements for such private facade inspectors in the interest of public safety.
2:41:49
Given the recent incidents involving existing structures, the department is doubling down on compliance We are conducting a comprehensive review of the summonses that had not been corrected, which includes conducting outreach to property owners with open summonses to provide them with guidance about the correction process.
2:42:06
While the department is taking on taking an education first approach to the issue, If summonses are not corrected in a timely manner, we will be performing follow-up inspections and will take additional enforcement action to prompt correction.
2:42:22
We are also taking a hard look at our enforcement toolbox to determine how we can hold bad actor property owners accountable for maintaining their properties which when traditional summonses do not suffice, and we look forward to discussing this issue with you further.
2:42:39
We encourage all New Yorkers to visit the department's website to determine whether there are any unresolved issues at their properties and to reach out to us with any questions that might they might have about bringing their properties into compliance.
2:42:56
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today.
2:43:01
We welcome any questions.
2:43:03
And madam, if I could just say one last thing before taking your questions.
2:43:10
If I appear to be nervous, And if you see me looking over my shoulder frequently, it's not because I'm worried about OMB staff or CLA staff to my undoubtedly 2 candid testimony.
2:43:25
It's because I fear those doors are gonna blow open and form a colleague, Charles Barron's gonna come sit down and ask me somewhere Charles is smiling right now in Brooklyn because of that statement.