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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Department's performance in FY 2024
2:54:04
ยท
3 min
Commissioner Oddo provides an overview of the Department of Buildings' performance in fiscal year 2024, covering various metrics related to construction job filings, permit issuance, review times, and inspection wait times.
- Approximately 280,000 construction jobs filed and 169,000 initial and renewal construction permits issued
- Slight increase in average review times, with initial reviews taking just over three days
- Reduced reliance on overtime, resulting in increased wait times for inspections
- Prompt response to complaints, with priority A complaints addressed within hours
- Decrease in the number of OATH summonses issued, attributed to education campaigns and industry adherence to regulations
James "Jimmy" S. Oddo
2:54:04
Before I discuss these initiatives further, I will discuss the department's performance over the past year.
2:54:11
In fiscal year twenty twenty four, the last full fiscal year, approximately 280,000 construction jobs were filed with the department and we issued 169,000 initial and renewal construction permits combined.
2:54:26
This represents a slight decrease in construction job filings from the previous fiscal year.
2:54:31
Despite the decrease in filings, the average time to review filings slightly increased across the board last fiscal year.
2:54:38
However, the department continues to maintain strong service levels with customers waiting just over three days for their job filings to be reviewed for the first time.
2:54:48
The slight uptick in the time it takes the department to review filings can be attributed to an increased number of resubmissions after the department conducts initial review of the filing and issues objections.
2:55:01
Our goal is to continue to promptly complete our initial plan reviews and to improve the quality of such reviews by continuing to train our plan examiners to ensure that plan review is efficient and consistent to reduce resubmissions.
2:55:16
The wait time between a construction inspection request and an inspection, which occurs after a construction project is completed by a contractor, continues to be short last fiscal year with customers waiting about four days for a construction inspection, five days for an electrical inspection and three days for a plumbing inspection.
2:55:36
However, we are beginning to see increased wait times across the board this fiscal year.
2:55:40
The biggest impact on development inspection service levels has been a reduced reliance on overtime due to overtime reduction efforts by the department.
2:55:50
Last fiscal year, the department reduced its overtime spending by $4,700,000 which represents a 50% reduction from the previous fiscal year.
2:56:02
In order to improve service levels, the department is being judicious about allowing for overtime where it is seeing heightened demand for inspections, is piloting the use of self certification for certain low risk inspections, and is prioritizing recruiting for inspectorial vacancies.
2:56:21
We continue to respond to complaints from members of the public expeditiously.
2:56:25
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.
2:56:37
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 thirteen days.
2:56:50
As a result of responding to these complaints and our proactive inspections concerning construction safety, we issued approximately 44,000 oath summonses last fiscal year.
2:57:01
This is a slight decrease from the previous fiscal year and can be attributed to the education campaigns by the department intended to provide more transparency to the construction industry regarding conditions that will result in enforcement actions being taken.
2:57:16
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 or monetary penalties.