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LPC enforcement complaints and investigations discussion
1:37:32
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136 sec
Council Member Brewer inquires about a reported increase in LPC enforcement complaints and decrease in investigations. Chair Carroll explains that these numbers don't directly correlate due to multiple complaints potentially relating to a single property. She clarifies that all complaints are investigated within 30 days, and the agency has cleared a previous backlog.
- The apparent discrepancy in numbers is due to how complaints and investigations are counted
- LPC has caught up on their backlog of complaints
- Every complaint is investigated and responded to within 30 days
Gale Brewer
1:37:32
My question, according to the material we have from the staff, that there's a 73.3% increase in complaints regarding enforcement and a 22.6% decrease in investigations, and that's concerning.
1:37:48
So I didn't know if, according to the preliminary budget, there's a decline in enforcement activity, and I didn't know if that had to do with staff or if there's some other aspect.
Sarah Carroll
1:37:58
Yeah.
1:37:59
It's a these are tricky numbers.
1:38:00
They actually the number of complaints and the number of actions taken don't really correlate, right?
1:38:08
Because we can get maybe five complaints for one property, or we can get one complaint.
1:38:16
It's not one complaint per property.
1:38:18
You can get multiple complaints for one property, and so the number of investigations reflects the number, really the number of properties investigated, which can be very different than the number of complaints depending on how many complaints you get for a property.
1:38:32
The other thing is that I think in the previous fiscal year we had a backlog of complaints, and the enforcement department undertook a big initiative to address that backlog, and they cleared out the backlog, which was about 500 complaints.
1:38:54
So that also inflated the number of complaints that were investigated.
1:38:59
So the numbers really, the numbers of complaints and investigations and actions don't really correlate to each other.
1:39:06
They're different.
Gale Brewer
1:39:08
But you're saying then you are caught up staff wise and
Sarah Carroll
1:39:11
complaint and investigation?
1:39:13
Every investigate every complaint is investigated and usually responded to within thirty days.
Gale Brewer
1:39:19
Okay.
1:39:19
And responded to means that somebody's gonna do something about if they're supposed Right.
Sarah Carroll
1:39:24
Either we've taken an action and issued a warning letter of violation or we've investigated and found that it was not in violation.
Gale Brewer
1:39:31
Okay.
1:39:31
Because I noticed, for instance, the CVS on 96 in Amsterdam was a mess, and you are in fact, I see scaffolding, so I assume LPC got after them.
1:39:41
And I appreciate that.
1:39:42
I don't know if that's what happened, but I had written about that.
Sarah Carroll
1:39:45
If you reported it, I'm sure that we've gone after I appreciate it.