PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council wants to give the Department of Licenses and Inspections more money.
At Wednesday’s budget hearing, member after member urged L&I Commissioner Ralph DiPietro to hire more staff.
“L&I does not have enough inspectors,” said Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
“You’re doing way more and I don’t know if you’re doing it with the proper resources,” added Councilmember Curtis Jones.
“Commissioner, if you could just take a minute to talk about your vision for hiring more staff,” said fellow Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
“I’m hearing about staffing issues,” Councilmember Allan Domb expressed.
“We need to expand the number of inspectors. I just don’t think there’s any question you’re hearing that,” Councilmember Helen Gym echoed.
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Typically, most department heads are asked at budget hearings to justify how much they’re spending, and many officials this year have pleaded for more funding.
But DiPietro found himself in the position of defending the idea of not spending more.
Not that it wouldn’t be great, to have more inspectors, he acknowledged, but he said a couple of factors are working against that.
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“We’re competing with the private sector that can provide far better benefits, pay and company vehicles,” he explained, “but the biggest challenge we have right now is simply our ability to process someone from an entry level into the inspector role.”
DiPietro said 40 new inspectors are in training, and the department is able to conduct 300 inspections a day. Each inspector maked five to seven stops, which he said is about average for a big city.
Councilmembers worry about the surge in building permits, coupled with new duties such as enforcing nuisance business laws.
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