Swear-heavy petition demands council enforce a minimum number of L&I inspectors
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
As in: "Stop fucking around with e-cigarettes and do some real shit for a change."
Following revelations today from PlanPhilly's Patrick Kerkstra that L&I's highly effective anti-blight task force had essentially been reduced to a skeleton crew, foul-mouthed neighborhood rabblerouser and Philadelinquency proprietor Chris Sawyer organized an online petition demanding Council set a legal minimum on the number of building inspectors citywide.
To quote: "Stop fucking around with e-cigarettes and do some real shit for a change."
If that seems strong, just remember the numerous lives lost over the past few years that might have been saved if L&I didn't have such a chronic lack of funding and manpower. There are currently about 60 inspectors overseeing Philadelphia's 580,000 properties, nearly 40,000 of which are vacant. On a good day, that's about one person for every 10,000 buildings. Sawyer's petition calls for a mandatory minimum of 100.
How much would it cost? In 2007, Philadelphia's municipal unions pegged the starting salary for L&I inspectors between $35,000 and $37,000 a year. Adding in the average annual cost of health-care benefits (about $13,000 for city employees in 2008), back-of-the-napkin math indicates that Sawyer's plan would cost the city somewhere in the ballpark of $1.6 million a year. Seems like a small price to pay to nearly double the city's inspection capabilities. Then we can start talking about the court system...
