Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
Commissioner Oddo explains new DOB positions and impact on service levels
4:17:29
ยท
5 min
Commissioner James Oddo provides a detailed explanation of the new positions added to the Department of Buildings and their impact on service levels. He discusses the challenges faced by the department due to budget constraints and staffing issues.
- Outlines new positions added, including 60 for proactive enforcement and 25 for Local Law 152
- Explains the impact of vacant positions and overtime reductions on service levels
- Discusses the strategic use of professional certification to create bandwidth
- Mentions retention issues and the department's role as a pipeline for skilled workers
James "Jimmy" S. Oddo
4:17:29
Right.
4:17:30
So we we in terms of the additional lines from the November and January plans, we referenced already, right, the 60 positions on proactive enforcement, 25 to carry out Local Law 152, the 10 additional attorneys for Local Law 97, and of the basement legalization and the City of Yes.
4:17:56
Those are the new lines that we received.
4:18:02
In terms of just overall service levels and service levels you alluded to chair, Again, show me a service level going in the wrong direction, you will see steep overtime reductions and staffing challenges that come in the form of hiring and come in the form of retention.
4:18:30
And I just want to remind everyone the the two pegs that we took, the 18,000,000 and change, the 210 lines, those lines were overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, vacant.
4:18:45
The those vacancies though created accruals that allowed our agency to escalate our overtime way above the budgeted amount.
4:18:59
We had to take overtime that was over $9,000,000 when it was budgeted at 3 and change, 3,000,000 and turn that off and then figure out how to turn it on and off as we saw a level spike.
4:19:15
But there is no doubt that downstream from that you're seeing, you know, an impact on service levels.
4:19:22
I'll just give you a quick snapshot.
4:19:24
We we had done a snapshot back in October of certain service levels that were going in the wrong direction.
4:19:31
I don't need to tell you the the specifics, but I just wanna share with you.
4:19:35
If you look at the service level and go, why is that going up?
4:19:38
Headcount down 10%, OT down 78%.
4:19:42
Another service level.
4:19:43
Headcount down 8%, OT down 93%.
4:19:46
Headcount down 10%, OT down 78%.
4:19:50
OT down 82%, OT down 84%, seventy eight %.
4:19:54
You get my point.
4:19:57
And okay, we looked at wounds, we kept it together, the service levels didn't explode, but there's a certain period of time where you could point to that and then that answer doesn't cut it.
4:20:10
And I think that's the point that we're at.
4:20:12
And I think that's reflected in a few things.
4:20:15
That's reflected in us strategically in a very narrowly tailored way.
4:20:22
Adding back some professional certification.
4:20:25
Mentioned it on elevators.
4:20:27
We're we're considering it on a certain universe of electrical inspections.
4:20:34
By the way, just so you know, what we giveth, we also taketh away.
4:20:39
There's a bulletin going out in July that will we will no longer allow professional certification on underpinnings because Gus and the team did a really good job of doing audits and we were not happy with what we've So I don't want anyone in the council to think that that we're just gonna blindly do professional certification.
4:20:59
I was so concerned about that that I went back and I found quotes from me as a council member from 02/2007, assailing widespread professional certification.
4:21:08
But we think we can narrowly, in a narrowly tailored way, add that back on, create some some bandwidth.
4:21:17
The other issue to the staffing challenge and I I want commissioner Cenabria to spend a few minutes if we can, is that we have a we have a retention issue.
4:21:29
And and writ large globally, it's probably a good thing because DOB is a pipeline.
4:21:36
We get folks in.
4:21:38
The team does a hell of a job training them up.
4:21:41
And when the private sector is doing well, the private sector takes these folks.
4:21:46
But also our sister agencies, deputy commissioner Sanabria can give you names of sister agencies that love to kind of take our staffers.
4:21:57
We can give you rationale.
4:21:59
We can give you sort of experience levels when they're leaving.
4:22:03
So we have this and we will always have this continuous turnover.
4:22:08
We have to bring people in, train them, they go about into the bigger eco ecosystem.
4:22:13
Again, it's a good thing for New York City.
4:22:16
It's a challenge for us.
4:22:18
So even though we've had the additional lines that we've alluded to, our head count is sort of flat because as we bring them in and we train them, we're losing them out the the side door.
4:22:31
Mark, do wanna get into some of the numbers?