Posted on 02/18/2020 8:59:25 PM PST by texas booster
Some of the New Orleans city building inspectors who signed off at key points of the construction of the Hard Rock Hotel before it pancaked and collapsed on Oct. 12, killing three laborers, do not appear to have been properly certified for the work, records show.
One inspector, Bryan Cowart, appears to be certified only for residential inspections. Inspector Julie Tweeter, whose whereabouts during inspections she claimed to have completed at the Hard Rock on several days last year are now under investigation, did not receive her commercial building inspector’s license until July 2018. By then, she’d signed off on at least four early inspections at the Hard Rock site, city records show.
All building inspector certifications are granted by the International Code Council, which limits residential inspectors to reviewing one- and two-family dwellings, townhomes and other buildings three stories in height or less.
...
The MCC (Metropolitan Crime Commission) blew the whistle in 2013 on a state fire marshal’s inspector, Nunzio Marchiafava, in a case with striking similarities. Marchiafava had allegedly lied about inspecting a Grand Isle motel where two people died in a fire, then fudged records to cover his tracks.
An investigation by the state Office of Inspector General — which likewise involved location data, though they were from Marchiafava’s phone — led to his conviction on a charge of attempting to injure public records. He received a year of probation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Ne’er do well friends and family of city council members?
ah, here ya go...”updated through July 2019”
pay rates are minimum, maximum, and (hiring).
(3) C2210 BUILDING INSPECTOR 63 32,702 53,750 21 (41,925)
(3) C2213 BUILDING INSPECTOR II 72 40,896 67,218 21 (52,431)
E X (1) C2214 BUILDING INSPECTOR III 78 47,471 78,024 17 (57,909)
(2) C2215 BUILDING INSPECTOR, TRAINEE 59 29,608 48,665 17 (36,119)
E X (1) C2107 BUILDING OFFICIAL 82 52,431 86,176 17 (63,960)
(3) C4244 BUILDING PLAN EXAMINER 68 37,027 60,859 21 (47,471)
E X (1) C4247 BUILDING PLAN EXAMINER, CHIEF 78 47,471 78,024 17 (57,909)
(8) C2421 BUILDING SERVICES SUPERVISOR, ASSISTANT 52 24,882 40,896 09 (27,481)
(8) C2420 BUILDING SERVICES WORKER 42 19,408 31,899 20 (24,574)
E X (1) C2413 BUILDINGS MAINTENANCE MANAGER Y 90 63,960 105,126 14 (75,170)
Wife and I visited that bar less than 48 hrs after the collapse. (We traveled from Detroit, attending a charity even at The Orpheum, next door..) Many streets in the area were closed off because of the accident,
We enjoyed one of their signature drinks, and the company of my boyhood hero, Sid Noel, aka Morgus the Magnificent.
Memorable weekend!
Cost the city? No, taxpayers.
There’s the real question. Has a root cause for the failure been determined?
An under-certified building inspector didn’t cause this problem.
It is worth going to Nola and reading the entire article. This is the past paragraph ...
Chode, thanks for finding that pic. A quick search last night didn't find any reference beyond this article to Ms. Tweeter. Could G__gle have already been scrubbed?
Certification is the process that we use to ensure that our employees and employers know what they are doing. There are lots of times that everyone cuts corners just to get the job done, and times that the inspector just adds a check mark to a long list of inspections to be done that day.
As citizens we pay for city inspectors to know about the matters being inspected. And there is a reason that we pay well for a Professional Engineer to have a clue ... so bridges and buildings don't fall down.
And I agree with the above poster Pikachu_Dad that city officials have already started tossing subordinates overboard to save their own butts.
Want to bet that not a single bribe taker, nor their manager, gets the least bit of jail time?
Well, maybe the lower rung employees ... but NOT the politicians that should be held accountable.
That would seem to be a major contractor screw up. Finger-pointing at some under-certified low-level field inspector would seem to be a distraction.
I'd be interested in the 'real number' for New Orleans building inspectors. I know that historically their municipal police force is the lowest paid of any major city. Considering all the patronage games that get played in New Orleans I wouldn't be surprised if when the number comes out that they are also massively underpaid and unqualified for what they are doing.
That looks like the screw up that cost lives.
But this accident has exposed the kabuki dance that is the N.O. government like little before, and for once, the locals care about following an investigation to the end.
My certifications are expired now but I was a certified plans examiner and inspector. I just could not imagine ever, ever pulling a stunt like that. And this was before GPS. It was however during the days of “The inspector didn’t show.”
Sometimes if a plan review or inspection failed a contractor would whine that the only way other contractors passed was because we took bribes. Nope. Unlike New Orleans this is still pretty much small town. Besides the outright wrongness of it there was the whole “No keeping stuff like that a secret.”
I also knew my limits. So even though on paper I was certified in some areas (I am a marvel at test taking) I knew it might not translate to actual application. I would never even attempt to go beyond my ability. I took the duty to public safety seriously.
I was first exposed to the fact there could be corruption in the whole building inspection process when reading the reports on Hurricane Andrews. Unless there are such a thing as dissolving rebar and levitating tie downs a blind eye was turned to quite a few violations.
Yep. And it is possible that it could be something that does not show up on inspection. It is not possible to check(besides trusting information provided) if the steel and other material meets the specs. That is probably still under investigation.
That could be the case. It might also be they are pressured to show a certain number of inspections a day and that means those inspections get hurried. On big jobs contractors usually get penalized if it goes beyond a set number of days. So delays because of failed inspections can mean a major loss of income. You can be sure those contractors have the ear of city politicians who likely let the building department know they should not be so “fussy” about certain things.
I believe (from what I have learned) the cantilever balcony section was an add-on and under designed. That compounded with removing the temporary shoring columns too soon caused the collapse.
“An under-certified building inspector didn’t cause this problem.”
Depends on how you define “cause”. The under-certified inspector did not catch the deficiency either as an inspector should. I would posit that is a “proximate cause”.
A field inspector doesn’t do play review.
Field inspectors can place stop work orders on projects that don’t meet standards. Don’t blown smoke, I’m a building contractor.
Ahh, so you are acquainted with Mr. Red Tag.
Not on my jobs.
g prolly tweaked the algorithm annnnd, shes gone...
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