[an error occurred while processing this directive]

September 21–28, 2000

cover story

The Ghosts of Meridian

Did L&I dismiss fire code violations for the sake of a wealthy developer? The Fire Department wants to find out.

by Ralph Cipriano

Back in March, a resident of a Center City high-rise didn’t think his building was safe, so he called the Fire Department. He didn’t want to leave a name.

Capt. Thomas R. Donovan of the fire code unit went out to inspect the 13-story building at 235 S. 15th St. Donovan, a veteran firefighter in his 20th year, found trash in the stairways and exit doors that didn’t close, just like the resident told him. Routine fire code violations, he figured.

But then Donovan saw something else inside the high-rise on South 15th Street that haunts him to this day. It’s what Councilman Jim Kenney, the son of a firefighter, has come to describe as "the ghosts of Meridian."

Donovan discovered that the high-rise on 15th Street didn’t have a Class I standpipe system as required by the city after the most savage skyscraper fire in Philadelphia history, the 1991 Meridian Plaza fire that burned out of control for nearly 19 hours and killed three firefighters.

Standpipes are the vertical piping that supply water to fight fires on every floor of a high-rise (buildings over 75 feet). The standpipe at One Meridian Plaza was one of the key emergency systems that failed the day the three firefighters died. They didn’t have enough water inside the building to fight the fire.

When Donovan got back to the office, he couldn’t just write a report. He had to talk to somebody. So he called the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I). He figured somebody there would know about the lack of a standpipe. Donovan spoke with an L&I official he knew and asked if there was an outstanding violation.

"No problem, I’ll look it right up for you," the official said. There was a long pause on the other end of the line as the L&I official read his computer screen. "I’m gonna have to get back to you," the L&I official said. But he never did. Donovan called back, but the official wouldn’t return his calls. "I was left scratching my head," Donovan said.

That was the beginning of a search that led city officials and, subsequently, reporters to discover that contrary to what Donovan had seen inside 235 S. 15th St., the high-rise had a clean fire record. At the time Donovan checked, there were no existing violations in the building. According to computer records, top L&I officials had "closed" (in other words, dismissed) nine fire code violations at 235 S. 15^th St., including the standpipe violation (although some have since reappeared without explanation).

The high-rise on 15th St. is owned by Philadelphia Management. The company’s president, Ronald Caplan, is a wealthy and influential Center City developer and regular Democratic party contributor.

The L&I official who closed out that standpipe violation, Deputy Commissioner Dominic Verdi, is now under investigation for his actions by the city’s Inspector General’s Office, according to a high-ranking source in city government. Verdi is known for wearing a bulletproof vest during raids on crack houses and nuisance bars as a member of the District Attorney’s Nuisance Task Force.

Verdi has hired a lawyer and says he is anxious to defend his reputation, but he has been ordered by superiors not to talk.

The inspector general, according to the source, is investigating decisions by Verdi and other top L&I officials to close out as many as 90 fire code violations at 15 Caplan Center City high-rises and apartment buildings, including 235 S. 15th St. In addition, the source said an investigation is underway into the relationship between Caplan and L&I Commissioner Edward J. McLaughlin.

A City Paper reporter’s questions earlier this month prompted the inspector general’s investigations, according to Barbara Grant, a spokeswoman for Mayor Street. "We have asked the inspector general to take a look at this because of the questions you have raised, and to avoid the appearance of any hint of impropriety."

The Verdi case and the other investigations are the talk of the Municipal Services Building, where L&I has its own ghost to contend with — Frank Antico, the former chief of business regulatory enforcement who was convicted last year by a federal grand jury of 18 counts of racketeering, extortion and wire fraud.

Antico was accused of using his official position at L&I to help himself to free food and drinks, lap dances and sex at the city’s topless bars and strip clubs. He was sentenced to five and a half years in jail.

"I feel proud that this was the organization that ended Frank’s career," said McLaughlin at the time. "Frank Antico is an example of what an L&I employee should not be."

Some city employees will tell you that Antico looks like an angel compared to what’s going lately at L&I. Antico may not have been able to keep his zipper up, but if there’s a fire in a high-rise that doesn’t meet the fire code, city employees say, the results will be deadly.

So what’s the real story? Was L&I just being business-friendly to a far-sighted developer who has almost single-handedly revitalized Center City, as the agency’s defenders will tell you? Or did top L&I officials bend the rules to do a favor for a Democratic party contributor? Has there been an overall breakdown in L&I’s enforcement of the fire safety code, as Fire Department officials suggest? Are lives of residents and firefighters at stake?

Caplan isn’t talking to City Paper; he failed to return more than a dozen phone calls, including one on Monday, when his secretary said he was at an all-day "golf outing." He did speak to a Philadelphia Daily News reporter for a story published Monday. In that article he states that the building is safe, and that the controversy "was created by a Fire Department that wants to assume the inspection process for all city buildings."

Commissioner McLaughlin, a former police inspector who was appointed L&I Commissioner last year by former Mayor Rendell, answered a few questions during a brief and angry interview with City Paper last month. He was accompanying Mayor Street on a walking tour of dilapidated buildings in North Philadelphia.

"No comment, no comment," McLaughlin first said as he hurried away from a reporter. "No comment to you. I have plenty to say to other people… I have no civic obligation with you. You’re a freelance reporter."

McLaughlin also ordered other L&I employees not to talk to City Paper. But the L&I commissioner did respond to a few questions about 235 S. 15th St.

He bristled at the suggestion of favoritism.

"Talk to any developers," McLaughlin said. "You think you’ve got a story... You can focus on any developer you want and see the ‘favors’ as you call them that the L&I commissioner does."

Asked why so many violations were closed out, McLaughlin replied, "Because we are about compliance."

In the absence of official comment, city employees and reporters are left to speculate. Around L&I, top officials have adopted a bunker mentality, muttering about enemies within the government trying to do them in. A TV reporter called City Hall last week, demanding to know when officials were going to come clean about problems at L&I. Employees are rumored to be bringing documents by the boxload to the feds. The FBI may be sniffing around, L&I officials say. Meanwhile, firefighters and their defenders are closing ranks. Lives are on the line, they say, and something has to be done now.

"There’s a process in place that has worked over many years," said former Fire Commissioner William C. Richmond. "In this case, it appears as though the process has been circumvented. And the two questions to ask are: by whom, and why?"

City officials like City Councilman Kenney are not looking forward to officiating at a royal rumble between the Fire Department and L&I. "It’s a tough call," Kenney said.

Kenney is the former chairman of a Council committee that oversaw L&I. He sat on the committee for eight years and knows all the players at L&I. He thinks people are overreacting.

"Ed [McLaughlin] is an extremely intelligent person" who wants to "serve the public," Kenney said. Verdi, he said, is out at all hours "sifting through needle-strewn crack houses to shut them down and clean them out." Kenney knows; he helped raise the money that bought Verdi’s bulletproof vest.

Kenney said he supports the guys at L&I. "The simple elimination of violation notations from the computer file doesn’t necessarily mean they were wiped out in some nefarious way," he said.

 

Captain Donovan admits he’s an intense guy. "I’m an obsessive person," says the poet and former psychology instructor at Villanova University. "I’m completely obsessed with stopping people from getting burned up."

The men who died at Meridian aren’t ghosts to Donovan. He went to fire school with firefighter Phil McAllister, 43, one of the three victims of the Meridian fire. "He was so happy to be with the fire department," Donovan remembered. McAllister was always smiling, especially when he was behind a hose, Donovan said. He was a Carolina native who wanted to fight fires in Philadelphia, and then retire and go fishing back in Carolina.

Donovan started asking questions about the lack of a modern Class I standpipe at 235 S. 15th St., and then he got a print-out from L&I’s computer records. He doesn’t want to say who gave it to him. The records said that an L&I inspector had written up the high-rise back in April, 1997 for the lack of a standpipe. The computer print-out also noted that on Jan. 24, 1999, the violation was "closed as per Deputy Commiss[ioner] D[omenic] Verdi."

So Donovan went to see Matthew J. McCrory Jr., then deputy fire commissioner. He showed McCrory the computer print-out. McCrory offered to call Verdi and speak to him, deputy commissioner to deputy commissioner.

McCrory was not happy after he got off the phone with Verdi. Donovan explained what McCrory said to him. "Dominic said, ‘It’s political,’" Donovan said.

McCrory couldn’t be reached. Verdi was ordered by the department not to talk.

On March 9, 2000, McCrory wrote McLaughlin, Verdi’s boss, about the high-rise at 235 S. 15th St. McCrory wrote that the building did not have a "Class I standpipe as required by the Fire Prevention Code."

"As you are aware, in unsprinklered high-rise buildings like this, the Class I fire department standpipe is absolutely necessary for life safety, both of the occupants and our firefighters," McCrory wrote. The standpipes had been required since January 1995 because of the fatal Meridian Plaza fire, he pointed out.

"This building was cited for a lack of a Class I standpipe in May 1997, but for some unexplained reason, still does not have this essential fire protection system," he wrote. "We are requesting that L&I process and enforce this violation with all possible haste."

On April 24, 2000, following McCrory’s letter, the standpipe violation was reinstated. The building still does not have a Class I standpipe.

The department’s written regulations call for properties to be re-inspected by a city inspector, to see if the property owner has corrected a violation.

In the case of the high-rise on 15th St., however, the city’s computer records do not say that the properties were re-inspected in 1999 before the violation was closed, as is the usual procedure.

Two former L&I commissioners questioned why the records did not list a reason for closing the standpipe violations.

"I wanted all violations pushed through the municipal court," said Leon G. Wigrizer, a former L&I commissioner, city inspector general and inspector general of the U.S. treasury under President Carter. Wigrizer said he even met with the chief judge of the municipal court to insure that L&I cases would be taken seriously.

"It was my philosophy that any removal of any violations should have been fully documented in the files," Wigrizer said. "You always document your actions. I always taught that to everybody who ever worked for me."

Bennett Levin, L&I commissioner from 1992 to 1995, said that he was aware of only one violation that was closed out during his tenure as commissioner, because it was a mistake. Levin said he personally signed the violation, as well as a written justification for closing it.

Levin says that under the city charter, only the Board of Safety and Fire Prevention has the authority to overturn a fire code violation, and that’s only if a property owner files for a variance. "The commissioner doesn’t have the authority to close out a violation," he said. "It is solely the call of the fire board."

According to McLaughlin, a violation at 235 S. 15th St. has been referred to court for prosecution.

"We have a violation on its way to court," McLaughlin said. "A violation has been issued. There’s one violation of any substance. It wasn’t closed out." A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25 in Municipal Court.

Asked about the fire department memo, which said the standpipe violation dated back to 1997, McLaughlin responded, "Well I don’t know how you got an internal memo. That’s another issue."

 

Internal L&I memos obtained by City Paper show that L&I officials have been paying close attention to Caplan. Two different internal memos circulated among L&I employees list 20 and 24 of Caplan’s properties. One of the memos had the headline, "REFINANCE PORTFOLIO."

Former L&I Commissioner Levin, who was shown the memos by City Paper, said they appear to be "the road map to get rid of the [fire code] violations."

Caplan apparently was refinancing his portfolio of Center City real estate holdings at the time, Levin said. Lenders customarily require that a property have no outstanding code violations as a condition of refinancing.

The city routinely issues certifications to lenders and sellers that list all outstanding violations of fire, housing, building, electrical and plumbing codes. Fire code violations are considered the most serious; the fire code is the only city code that has retroactive enforcement provisions.

Caplan is a regular Democratic contributor who donated $5000 to Mayor Rendell and $11,000 to Mayor Street’s election campaign, according to city campaign records. Most people at City Hall know who he is. Councilman Kenney described Caplan as "one of the pioneers of revitalization" in Center City.

In November, 1999, L&I housing inspector Phillip Goffredo sent a memorandum to Harry R. Shugar, chief of the housing unit in which the memo was circulated about Caplan. "I have acquired a list of 175 high-rise residential buildings," Goffredo wrote, "excluding all Philadelphia Management (CAPLAN) properties, residential PHA towers and College High-rise Dormitories." The housing inspector asked for Shugar’s permission to inspect the 175 properties.

PHA has its own housing and fire inspectors, as do colleges like the University of Pennsylvania. Levin said it was "highly irregular" for L&I officials to give a private developer the "same pass" that they give PHA and the University of Pennsylvania.

In December, Goffredo wrote another memorandum to Shugar about "CITY WIDE RESIDENTIAL HIGH-RISE PROPERTIES."

"I have acquired a list of 209 residential high-rise properties excluding a few managed by Philadelphia Management Company," Goffredo wrote. He noted that buildings on the list had changed from commercial to residential without the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. The official said he would proceed to inspect the properties brought to his attention by none other than Capt. Donovan of the fire department.

 

Connections between Caplan and Cmmr. McLaughlin are being investigated by the Inspector General’s Office. McLaughlin’s son Michael formerly worked with Caplan.

In the spring of this year, the younger McLaughlin introduced himself as the commissioner’s son to a fire official, Lt. Michael Keen, during an inspection of a Philadelphia Management property at 201 S. 13th St., Donovan said. The normal procedure is for fire officials to meet with the building manager.

L&I records list Michael McLaughlin as the owner of one of the Philadelphia Management properties at 1220 Sansom, although the records also list Philadelphia Management and its address.

Commissioner McLaughlin also lived in a Philadelphia Management property, the Parkway House at 2201 Pennsylvania Ave., for several months in 1998.

During City Paper’s encounter with McLaughlin in August, the commissioner was asked if he had a conflict of interest because his son once worked for Philadelphia Management.

McLaughlin replied, "Let me ask you something. You’re a real smart guy. You’re a real smart guy, okay? Where would my son be able to work where I wouldn’t have influence in this city? I regulate every business and every building in this city. So why are you picking on this?"

McLaughlin wouldn’t answer questions about whether he’d ever lived in a Caplan property. He just waved his arms dismissively and walked away. Efforts to reach Michael McLaughlin were unsuccessful.

 

Caplan, in addition to not returning City Paper’s phone calls, did not respond to a personal visit to his office, nor to a copy of the McCrory letter from the fire department that was left for his perusal.

In Caplan’s absence, Caplan’s director of operations Annette Billups answered some questions. She said that all company properties were safe, including 235 S. 15th St.

"I have no violations as such," she said. "As far as I know the building is up to code. No one told me anything different."

(At the time of her comments, a court date for the fire code violation had not been set.)

Asked if the building was a hazard, Billups said, "Absolutely not. It has a standpipe. There’s a standpipe in there. There’s a working monitor fire alarm system," she said adding, "It absolutely is not a fire trap."

"It’s absolutely safe," she said. "We spare no cost in the life safety issues."

Capt. Donovan says the results of his inspection contradict Billups.

The high-rise, he says, has a Class II standpipe with insufficiently sized piping, as narrow as 1 inch in the lobby, which is "an insufficient water supply for firefighting operations." He speaks freely in fire department jargon. "The Class I standpipe required by the fire code is a minimum vertical pipe size of 4 inches with code-compliant 2 1/2 inch hose outlets," Donovan said. Then he tries to put it in English.

"It’s not enough water to put out a fire," Donovan said of the existing system. It’s dangerous to train a hose on a fire unless you have sufficient water. "All the water turns to steam, and it expands at a very high ratio," Donovan said. "Some of the most serious burns a fireman can get are steam burns."

A Class II standpipe provides so little water it would be useless in the event of a fire, except as a supplemental line, Donovan said.

Also, the fire code requires that the Class I standpipe be placed in both exit stairways in the building, Donovan said. The existing standpipe is in a central hallway on each floor, not a protected location from which to initiate an attack on a fire because the hallway connects to multiple apartments, Donovan said.

"We’ve realized through experience and through loss of life that it [the Class II standpipe] isn’t enough," Donovan said.

Former Fire Commissioner Richmond agrees that fighting a fire in a high-rise without a modern standpipe system is "brutal, time-consuming work." Firefighters have to hook a hose up to a fire truck, then lug hoses up stairwells, in addition to their usual tools and equipment, which weigh at least 35 pounds.

"It takes considerable time," Richmond said. "It’s almost impossible to describe how physically exhausting that is." He said that fire officials should stand up for the safety of firefighters. "On the basis of looking out for their own people they should be pursuing this vigorously."

However, Executive Fire Chief Henry Dolberry didn’t have much to say about the high-rise on 15th St. "It’s a political hotcake here," he said. "We don’t want to get into a pissing contest with L&I."

McLaughlin reminded a reporter that L&I had jurisdiction over the fire department. "The fire department does not enforce the fire code, we do," he said.

 

Residents at 235 S. 15th St. say they don’t know anything about standpipes or the feud between L&I and the fire department.

"This building is very quiet," one woman said. She does not want to give her name. "I’ve lived here 16 years and I’ve never had any problem."

Told about the fire department’s letter to McLaughlin, the woman said, "I really don’t know much," but "I’m terribly afraid of fire."

Another tenant who does not want to give his name said he wishes the building, which has 58 units, had a residents’ association.

"That’s very interesting," he says about the Fire Department letter. "It doesn’t surprise me."

The man says that rents aren’t cheap inside 235 S. 15th St., where a two-bedroom apartment goes for $1,500 a month. "If a door knob breaks, you’ve got to call them 10 times to get something fixed," he said. "I call them Philadelphia Mismanagement."

The City Councilman who represents the high-rise residents said he plans to ask some questions.

"If it’s anything involving safety, I’m interested," said City Councilman Darrell Clarke.

There may be other problems at 235 S. 15th St. besides the standpipe.

L&I computer records compiled by building inspectors show that the owner was cited in December, 1999 for a failed environmental test in March, 1998 on an underground storage tank that may have contained either gas or oil.

In January, 2000 the violation was replaced by a new case number. A computer ID inspection number listed in the records notes that the violation was closed out not by an inspector, as is usually the case, but by Kevin Daly, head of L&I’s commercial and industrial unit.

The records did not state why the violation was closed. If workers had to remove the tank or replace it, a building permit would have been required, officials said, but no permit is mentioned in the records.

Other violations listed at the property include a fire alarm on January 1999 that did not sound at the required 70-decibel level. Computer records note: "(2/29/00 close case as per Dominic Verdi.)" No explanation is listed for why the violations were closed. A total of nine fire code violations were closed at 235 S. 15th St., without explanation.

 

L&I officials have closed out fire code violations in other properties connected with Philadelphia Management.

In November 1998, violations were cited at the Parkway House at 2201 Pennsylvania Ave., where Cmmr. McLaughlin had been a temporary resident. The owners of the 235-unit building needed to "install automatic fire detection on mezzanine level, laundry room, basement /cellar and lobby."

The violations were "close[d] by administration" without explanation on Jan. 24, 2000 "as per Deputy Comm. D. Verdi." The owner is listed as Parkway Associates, but Philadelphia Management employees answer the phone. A Philadelphia Management employee did not return a phone call.

A fire department inspection last week determined that the property owner was still in violation for not having smoke detectors in the lobby.

Another Philadelphia Management property, a 17-story, 176-unit high-rise student dormitory at 1338-48 Chestnut, was cited on Nov. 15, 1999 for failure to contact the fire department to test an alarm system. Computer records note "No audible fire alarm for student dorm" on the same day.

On Dec. 3, 1999, L&I officials also wrote a violation for shutting off smoke detectors during construction. The property owner was given 10 days to fix the situation. On March 17, 2000, the fire alarm violation was "close[d] per D. Verdi."

Normal L&I procedure would have called for posting a cease-operations at the building, or requiring the owner to maintain a fire watch with four-hour shifts. The building is a college dormitory for the Art Institute of Philadelphia that is leased from Philadelphia Management.

A college official, Frank Prillerman, dean of student services, said the problems have been taken care of, and that the student dorm is "absolutely safe."

"We took occupancy of that building last fall, and during November, the fire alarm was disabled on the lower floors where there was still construction," Prillerman said.

"Those alarms on a couple of floors were disabled while the electricians were working," Prillerman said. "I understand everything’s up to code." Electricians have since installed two "state-of-the-art fire alarm systems," a primary system and a back-up system, Prillerman said.

 

In the halls of L&I’s offices, where Frank Antico used to walk, McLaughlin has hung on display a dozen three-foot high posters of the official L&I ethics code. More than 450 L&I employees are also required to carry a wallet-sized copy of the guide to "ethical decision making."

"I will place public safety above all other interests," the code states. "I will place public interest above individual, group or special interests."

But over at the Fire Department, Captain Donovan sees L&I as an agency in disarray. And that has him worried because of L&I’s responsibility for enforcing the fire code.

If L&I inspectors are out doing their job and writing violations, Donovan said, then more and more property owners should be filing for variances with the city Board of Safety and Fire Prevention.

But that’s not what’s going on. The number of variances have dropped from 143 in 1998 to 97 in 1999, Donovan said. As of Aug. 31 of this year, only 49 requests for variances have been filed.

Meanwhile, the city has more than 100 commercial high-rises that do not have sprinklers. Under the new fire code, sprinklers were supposed to be installed in commercial high-rises by last Dec. 31, Donovan said. The fire official said he expected high-rise owners would line up for variances at the city Board of Safety and Fire Prevention.

But that’s not the case. Not one property owner has filed a single application for a variance, Donovan said. The system has broken down, Donovan said, because L&I inspectors aren’t writing violations anymore.

"There are a number of excellent people and excellent inspectors working for L&I who come to work every day and try to do their jobs to the best of their abilities," Donovan said. "It’s a terrible misfortune that a few people within the organization have demoralized a majority of the workers by practices that are… unsound and unsafe, particularly in regard to fire safety regulations."

"If the inspectors who enforce life safety in the city are demoralized, ultimately, somebody is going to die," Donovan said. "Either a city resident or a firefighter, attempting to fight a fire in a building that doesn’t have the minimum safety requirements of the fire prevention code."

Kenney said he’s aware of tensions between L&I and the fire department. He thinks the city is asking too much of L&I. The agency regulates all city businesses, issues building permits and business licenses, inspects buildings, seals drug houses, cleans vacant lots and demolishes abandoned buildings.

"They are like the first line of inspection for everything," Kenney said. "They’re just doing everything and they don’t have the amount of people they need."

Last week, L&I officials began frantically inspecting high-rises around the city. "They’re throwing dirt over their tracks," Donovan said.

The state should step in, he said, like they’re always threatening to do with the city school system.

"L&I is in much worse shape than the school district."