Photo Courtesy of Comptroller Stringer’s Office
Comptroller Stringer’s audit found that with respect to curb cuts and driveways, DOB did not adequately oversee its processes for responding to complaints and for issuing permits for their installation as well as deficiencies in all aspects of DOB’s complaint intake, inspection, and disposition processes.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The City Department of Buildings has failed to adequately oversee complaint intake, inspection, and disposition processes for illegal curb cuts and driveways, according to an audit released on Thursday by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
For the audit scope period, Comptroller Stringer obtained from DOB a complaint listing with 7,256 entries, of which 5,783 were individual complaints associated with 3,874 properties of potentially illegal curb cuts, driveways, and carports according to DOB’s internal reporting. For the 5,783 individual complaints received during the audit scope, DOB performed 3,238 inspections for 3,020 properties. Of these 3,238 inspections, DOB issued 1,435 OATH violations related to 1,203 properties.
Stringer’s audit found that with respect to curb cuts and driveways, DOB did not adequately oversee its processes for responding to complaints and for issuing permits for their installation as well as deficiencies in all aspects of DOB’s complaint intake, inspection, and disposition processes. DOB lacked training for its field inspectors regarding curb cuts and driveways and did not provide sufficient supervisory oversight of their inspections. Additionally, DOB lacked controls over the issuance of violations for illegal curb cuts and driveways and DOB field inspectors did not appropriately refer all complaints that fall under other agencies’ jurisdictions to those agencies.
The audit also found that DOB reports generated from its databases in response to auditor inquiries of curb cut complaints, dispositions, and supervisory reviews contained inadequate and/or inconsistent information and were therefore unreliable. DOB also inappropriately issued permits in situations where the curb cut applications did not meet all the required conditions set forth in the City’s Zoning Resolution. By issuing these permits, DOB facilitated the installation of illegal curb cuts and driveways.
To address the issues raised by this audit, Comptroller Stringer made 27 recommendations including:
In connection with deficiencies in processing complaints of illegal curb cuts and driveways, DOB should enhance its procedures to ensure that:
- Triage officers correctly identify curb cut and driveway complaints that merit a field inspection and forward them to the Construction unit;
- Allegedly illegal curb cuts and driveways referenced in the complaints are inspected timely, according to its standards; and
- All assessed OATH violations are filed prior to the pre-set hearing date as required.
In connection with DOB’s inadequate oversight and training of field inspectors, DOB should:
- Ensure that DOB supervisory field inspectors (supervisors) review the results of all field inspections prior to finalizing their results;
- Ensure that field inspectors complete and submit a checklist as part of their inspections;
- Ensure that field inspectors use appropriate measurement tools during inspections to ensure that homeowners are adhering to the proper dimensions of a curb cut and driveway; and
- Establish specific training for curb cut and driveway inspections to ensure that field inspectors have the requisite knowledge to assess the legality of curb cuts and driveways.
In connection with DOB field inspectors’ inadequate inspections of curb cuts and driveways, DOB should:
- Ensure that inspectors’ comments related to inspections of curb cuts and driveways are relevant, complete, and appropriate with respect to the complaint;
- Ensure that field inspectors correctly identify violating conditions and issue violations as appropriate; and
- Ensure that potentially violating conditions under DOT’s jurisdiction are referred and forwarded to DOT so that it may appropriately follow up.
