Q&A
Risk-based auditing and self-certified plans
4:02:34
·
6 min
Council Member Sanchez asks follow-up questions about DOB's risk-based auditing approach and the volume of self-certified plans. Officials provide additional details on their processes and data.
- DOB is considering violation data and debts owed in their risk-based auditing approach
- Approximately 50-60% of total filings are self-certified plans
- The department is working on improving its ability to target high-risk projects and bad actors
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:02:34
Thank you for answering my follow-up questions regarding what you look at.
4:02:39
In terms of the risk.
4:02:45
Okay.
4:02:46
Thank you.
4:02:47
Thank you for that and, you know, just wanna want to underscore that.
4:02:50
This this is certainly the the direction that I, you know, wanna support the agency and going to make sure that you use the information you have available to you in formulating this this new way of, you know, implementing risk based audits.
4:03:04
Are you looking at violation data and sort of debts owed?
Gus Sirakis
4:03:09
That is definitely something that we would be taking into account potentially from whether it's a particular contractor, architect or engineer, filing rep, property history in general.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:03:25
Got it.
Gus Sirakis
4:03:26
And seeing what combination leads to the best results for compliance and heading off problems down the path.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:03:32
Thank you so much.
4:03:34
How many self certified plans does DOB receive in a year?
Jimmy Oddo
4:03:39
I I don't know.
4:03:40
I you know, I I I don't know.
Gus Sirakis
4:03:44
It generally makes sense to 50 60% of our total filings
Adolfo Carrión Jr.
4:03:48
for
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:03:48
I'm sorry?
Gus Sirakis
4:03:48
50% to 60% of our total filings for the years, generally where we are.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:03:57
You you all should see my notes.
4:03:58
They get much spicier as I get more tired.
4:04:01
I'll show you those later Okay.
4:04:04
Thank you.
4:04:04
Thank you for that.
4:04:06
I I guess I I wanna and I wanna conclude section, and I actually think we've run through a lot of the questions that I had.
4:04:14
But I want to conclude this section on, you know, the a relationship to 1915, saying thank you to to the agency for your swift action against this in this particular engineer.
4:04:25
And I know commissioner and I talked about, you know, what this meant for the tenants to see the swift action.
4:04:31
I mean, they they weren't upset to see the guy, you know, give up his license for several years, but we are talking about families who lost it all.
4:04:40
You know, they they lost their very personal items that you can't put a value on.
4:04:47
And so just want to share that in this forum you know, to to just underscore the the importance of the work that you do as an agency in this These are people's lives, people's memories, people's culture, that are are at risk when when there are bad actors or careless actors in the city of New York.
Jimmy Oddo
4:05:06
Madame Chair, the the day of the collapse My chief staff and I were standing next to each other, and we were looking up at the corner of the building.
4:05:17
And then the and the top apartment you know, of course, of the of all things I noticed, like, is that a bench?
4:05:25
Is that a guy's barbell?
4:05:28
And the guy behind me says, yeah.
4:05:30
And I turned around and it was the owner of of that, you know, the the tenant in that apartment that was his And so I shared with the team your perspective about to the owner, to to the tenants whose lives were turned upside down, 2 years maybe not enough for them when relative to what they experienced.
4:05:57
We also have the state board, by the way, that can turn those 2 years into a more strenuous penalty.
4:06:08
But for 2 years, this individual will cool his jets and not fly his trade.
4:06:15
And I understand.
4:06:16
I understood your sentiment when we spoke.
4:06:18
I understand the tenant's sentiment.
4:06:20
And that's why we are so determined to bring this agency to the point where we're on offense trying to intercept before these events happen.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:06:35
Thank you.
4:06:36
Thank you, commissioner.
4:06:38
And and not my last question, but final comment on this section is on the by relations that are outstanding and the certifications of corrections that that don't happen.
4:06:48
Just wanna reiterate my excitement to work with you, to to make that better and to just provide better information to the public.
4:06:56
I think it it's very nerve wracking to live in a building that has hundreds of one agency kind of violations and then dozens of DOB violations, it's so nerve wracking because you don't know whether or not you're safe.
4:07:08
Right?
4:07:08
And so just wanna make sure to say that, wanna work with you on that, wanna wanna get the the information.
Jimmy Oddo
4:07:15
Yeah.
4:07:15
Tenant should know if it's because the underlying conditions still exist and and and they should be aware of that or it's because somebody refuses for whatever reason to submit I'll call it a piece of paper, but you you know what I'm so I'm I'm with you on that.
4:07:29
And, hopefully, we'll be in a different position in a few months.
4:07:33
And we've made, you know, made some progress.
4:07:36
We I I will say, Adam, share, we did a little canary in the coal mine, and We did a mailing to 1 to 4 1 to 4 property owners, and the response was The response was forceful.
4:07:54
The response may be almost too good because it created a little bit of a backlog that we're working through.
4:08:01
But it's a good thing.
4:08:02
We're correcting our books.
4:08:04
We're a compliance agency.
4:08:05
Our book should be as as up to speed as possible.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:08:09
I got calls about that.
4:08:10
So, yes, I I agree.
Jimmy Oddo
4:08:11
A couple of community boards didn't like it, but we've learned a lesson from it.
4:08:17
And the outreach that needs to happen ahead of time.
4:08:20
But people noticed that little postcard.
4:08:25
And we've made progress on eliminating some of those outstanding CFCs.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:08:33
Thank you.
4:08:34
Thank you so much.