It’s been an unusual year for the Department of Buildings in New York City, with a handful of incidents that have made national headlines — along with an unfortunate corruption arrest — giving the entire operation a black eye. But now, with the help of a Hollis Hills resident, the DOB hopes to right the ship this year.
[Robert] LiMandri comes to the appointment [of Commissioner] with six years of experience in the upper echelons of management within the DOB itself. He is extremely familiar with the borough where he makes his home, having been seen by residents most recently at a meeting with the mayor and his cabinet at York College. While there, LiMandri answered questions from the audience about everything from crane safety to the impact of larger buildings moving into their neighborhoods.
According to LiMandri’s biography, he grew up on Long Island and attended New York University for his Master’s Degree, after attending Clarkson University and majoring in mechanical engineering. He spent much of his time working with firms in the private sector, before joining the DOB as deputy commissioner of operations in 2002.
In 2005, he was appointed as the first deputy commissioner, a position he held until his recent promotion.
LiMandri already has a reputation for being a no-nonsense type, saying in numerous published reports that he intends to root out the complacency and corruption that has tarnished the DOB’s name in recent months.
His first order of business is to recommit the agency to a three-year plan, which began in 2009, to improve transparency within the agency to improve safety and ease of access to information for everyone who resides in the city.
5 comments:
Hopefully LiMandri will look out for Queens a little more since he lives here.
He can demonstrate good faith by requiring Como to demolish that illegal monstrosity he built just a block from the pervert Gallagher's home.
Step one: investigate why Como racked up more than 28 violations and more than 8 Stop work orders without punishment.
Step two: turn over the results of that investigation to the State Attorney General, since the Queens DA cannot be trusted to deal with crimes committed by elected officeholders.
Hopefully Mr.Li Mandri, for fear that SJU will build a dorm in his Hollis Hills neighborhood, will address the Saint John's off campus dormitory fiasco. The numerous letters written to Mayor Bloomberg and members of his administration requesting that the sewer issue and other community's concerns be addressed have fallen on deaf ears.
Hopefully, Commissioner LiMandri will be letting us know soon the results of any "special investigations" pertaining to the Huangs. The public is waiting.
LiMandri can't re-write the zoning resolution, change the make-up of the BSA,so don't expect too much.
To simply state facts about Mrs. Como's dream house:
The site has received 14 ECB violations, 4 of which are still open.
Of the other 10, the fines total $5,500-- all of which has been paid.
There are 5 DOB violations; all are pending.
A savvy, activist neighborhood has been calling in complaints two and three at a time, as they are entitled to do.
Nobody's going to put a homeowner in jail because the workers aren't off-site by 6:15 pm.
DOB is not going to order a tear-down because they substituted metal joists for wood without filing a form.
A number of the complaints were unfounded-- not just because inspectors don't show up immediately for what DOB considers venial violations-- others because correcting the cause of a SWO is not "work in violation."
As in so many other cases they'll wait until the end of the saga to do a single corrective filing and pay all the outstanding fines in one shot, because it's cheaper that way.
And before anyone answers with a rant,I have a world-class eyesore right across the street. We got him 26 violations, going back to June of 2005.
Only they were for things like no shoring on a 10 foot deep excavation, not BS like bricks on the scaffold.
We did goo...He ran out of money.
Now, he's offering to finish the house for any buyer with $1.7 mil.
We'll be looking at that crap for another 3 years, from the look of it.
Be careful what you wish for.
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