Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
REAL ESTATE
BUILDERS
AND
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 20, 1915
â– n
llllllillllBlllilllllllllllH^^
TWO REPORTS ON BUILDING INSPECTION
The Majority of the Mayor's Committee Advise that the Estimate Board
Should Regroup the Departments—Minority Report Favors Borough Plan
iiiiiiM ......llgilMMIiiiilMlliMM^^^
A PPOINTED to devise a plan for
*^ the amalgamation of building in¬
spection departments in this city that
would provide a basis for co-ordinating
and harmonizing divergent views, the
Mayor's committee composed of Messrs.
Allan Robinson, Robert E. Smion, Law¬
rence Veiller, Peter J. Brady, AUred T.
White and Wilham H. Childs, has made
a report, which is signed by hve ot the
six members. There is also a minor¬
ity report, which is signed by a single
member, Robert E. Simon, who is chair¬
man ot the Conierence Committee of
the Allied Associations; and there is
also an exception taken to the majority
report by Mr. Brady.
As everybody understands, the need
of unitying or consolidating the depart¬
ments nad been conceded, ihe real mis¬
sion of the committee was to hnd an
agreeable way of doing it. There has
been a division of opinion whether there
should be just one centralized depart¬
ment or one department tor each bor¬
ough; whether the Tenement House Ue-
partment should be included in the
grouping or left alone; whether the State
i-abor Department's duties in this city
should be taken over or left alone, and
whether the Fire Prevention Bureau
should be taken over or left alone.
The majority report does not under¬
take to say whether the "borough plan"
or the "city plan" should be loUowed,
but it does conhrm the need of combin¬
ing bureaus and departments, it re¬
commends that the iioard of Estimate
be empowered by an enabling act and
charged with the duty of "regrouping"
and "readjusting" all existing lunctions
of the city and borough departments
with respect to building inspection, in
other words, the responsibility is put
up to the Board of Estimate.
The majority report favors regrouping
the following departments; Police, Fire,
Tenement House, Health, Water Supply,
Gas and Electricity, Public Works, De¬
partment of Licenses, the five Bureaus
of Buildings and the State Department
of Labor. Mr. Brady's exception is
simply to the eflect that he is not in
favor of including the Labor Depart¬
ment, as the State Federation of Labor
is on record against it.
Text of the Majority Report.
The majority report says:
We do not mean to suggest that there
is overlapping of jurisdiction or conflict
of authority with regard to all these de¬
partments, but any plan for the simplifi¬
cation of building inspection would be in¬
complete which did not consider the
jurisdiction of all the departments or
bureaus above set forth.
The committee has been deeply im¬
pressed with the fact that the questions
involved are primarily administrative, not
legislative, and we have been chiefly in¬
fluenced in our recommendations by that
consideration.
The committee has also been deeply
impressed with the difficulties attending
the drafting of any piece of legislation
prepared hurriedly to adjust the present
ALLAN ROBINSON.
Chairman Mayor's Committee.
difficulties, in view of the serious danger
that might arise from decreasing the ef¬
ficiency of city government, increasing
the expense of such government, and
working possible and unnecessary hard¬
ships to property interests.
We are also impressed with the fact
that the changes to be made in the juris¬
diction of the various branches of the
city and State governments should not
be made all at one time, for in doing so
there is serious danger of confusion and
of loss of efficiency. In order to bring
about a simplification of the present
methods of government relative to in¬
spection of buildings in this city, we rec¬
ommend the following:
A simple enabling Act either in the
form of an amendment to the Charter or
a new statute, empowering the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment to combine
before January 1, 1916, the various bu¬
reaus of various boroughs or city de¬
partments that have to do with inspec¬
tion of buildings, regroup them in de¬
partments different from ones they are
now in, to abolish some, if necessary, to
give to the newly combined or newly es¬
tablished bureaus the same powers and
responsibilities that now attach to exist¬
ing bureaus. In a word, to regroup and
readjust all existing functions of the city
or borough departments with regard to
building inspection. The bill should be
a very simple one.
Another bill should give the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment power to
place in control of city departments the
functions now exercised by the State De¬
partment of Labor in so far as they re¬
late to the construction or alteration of
buildings.
The bills should safeguard existing
rights and causes of action, and should
make it clear beyond any peradventure
of doubt that the powers conferred upon
the Board of Estimate and Apportion¬
ment supersede all powers hitherto con¬
ferred upon various city departments
and the Stat£ Department of Labor in
these respects, whether contained in the
Charter or in any statute.
Your committee conferred with the
New York State Factory Investigating
Commission and discussed with them the
proposed plan which is outlined here, and
requested them, if they saw fit, to recom¬
mend the same in their report.
This plan is in line with the princi¬
ple of home rule and government of
the City of New York. The Board of
Estimate and Apportionment of the city
represents the entire city and all its cit¬
izens and taxpayers, and is in close touch
not only with the people of the city and
their sentiments and desires, but with the
administration and working of the vari¬
ous city departments and is in a better
position than the Legislature, which
must act through a committee and act
during a legislative session, to properly
devise ways, means and methods to do
away with any unnecessary inspection or
hardship in the enforcement of the laws
referred to. Respectfully,
Mayor's Building
Inspection Committee,
Lawrence Veiller, Peter J. Brady, Alfred
T. White, William H. Childs, Allan
Robinson.
The Minority Report.
The minority report to Mayor Mitchel
signed by Robert E. Simon, contained
the following:
"As a member of the committee
which you appointed to consider and, if
possible, reconcile the plans suggested
for simplifying inspection of construc¬
tion and alteration of buildings in this
city, it IS with great difhdence and sin¬
cere regret that 1 feel constrained to
submit lor your consideration this min¬
ority report.
"It is only my thorough knowledge of
the intolerable conditions as they now
exist; the fact that it is the unanimous
opinion of all familiar with the subject
that prompt relief should be granted;
the evil consequences of unnecessary de¬
lay and the fact that the majority re¬
port does not give the information for
which you asked, that gives me the cour¬
age to dissent from the action of my
colleagues on the committee.
"When you asked us to investigate
the remedies suggested I was willing to
devote the time necessary to get at the
facts and weigh the advantages and dis¬
advantages of the plans proposed; to
endorse either if the facts warranted, or
to make every effort to devise a third
plan which would reconcile the two
points of view.
"There were two plans: one to create
a single department under control of
the Mayor, known as the 'Central Plan/
the other to consolidate such part of the
functions of existing Bureaus and De¬
partments having to do with construc¬
tion, in^o the present Building Depart¬
ments as now constituted under the
jurisdiction of the Borough Presidents,
known as the 'Borough Plan.*
"Your committee held two public
hearings, one of which against my pro-