West Flushing Civic Association

NYC Gets New Buildings, Environmental Commissioners

LANCASTER & WARD TO THE RESCUE?

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has finally appointed commissioners to head the city's two most corrupt and poorly performing city agencies, the Department of Buildings and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Interesting how corruption and dismal service go hand in hand. Make no mistake about it: The failure of these two agencies has had a major negative impact on our quality of life, and in some cases, on our health and survival.

The new buildings commissioner is Patricia J. Lancaster, an architect who has worked for the city and Port Authority. The first woman to hold the job, Ms. Lancaster has pledged to "stamp out corruption and improve service." Well, she certainly has her priorities straight. We'll keep you posted on her performance.

Bloomberg's choice to head the Department of Environmental Protection is Christopher O. Ward, who also has the Port of Authority on his resume. Coincidence? We don't know much about him yet, but nobody's bragging about his environmental credentials. We need nothing less than a real savior in this department as well. Goodbye Joel "self certification" Miele.

An excerpt from the Times article is provided below. For the complete NY Times story, go to the URL listed below in bold, or go back to our West Flushing Civic Association homepage and click on "New York Times article" listed under Community Hotlinks.

--Richard Jannaccio

Excerpts from the NY Times:

Patricia J. Lancaster was named buildings commissioner. In announcing the appointment, Mr. Bloomberg said, "The job itself requires somebody that can be tough and make sure that this department acts efficiently so that people will not find impediments to build in this city, but also make sure that the standards, the ethics of the Building Department are above reproach."

The department, which enforces building codes and other construction laws and issues licenses for construction trades, has been plagued by corruption scandals. Toward the end of his term, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani tried unsuccessfully to transfer the inspection functions of the agency to the Fire Department in an effort to staunch the flow of impropriety. The Bloomberg administration has recently backed away from the idea, which has little support within the City Council, and officials said that they would not consider the move until they had found a commissioner.

Ms. Lancaster, who officials said would be the first woman to head the department, is an architect who has worked for the city's Department of General Services in the division of design and construction and also as an engineer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Yesterday she said that the reorganization was still under consideration.

"Nothing is off the table so far," she said.

Ms. Lancaster said that her mandate would be to stamp out corruption and improve service, but she declined to offer details on how she would accomplish those goals.

Christopher O. Ward, currently chief of planning and external affairs at the Port Authority, was named commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, an agency that faces a looming drought and questions about how it has managed the city's water supply. Mr. Bloomberg described one of its responsibilities as "making sure that the air that you breathe is safe and clean."

That very issue has been hotly contested lately, with residents and business owners near ground zero expressing grave doubts on safety information and cleanup advice from officials. Responding to those concerns, Mr. Ward said, "Clear and consistent information needs to be provided to residents and businesses in Lower Manhattan." He added that the Office of Emergency Management had created a task force for that purpose.

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