What's wrong with municipal code inspections?

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by jfarsetta

As to Will's comment, when the Mob ran inspections, especially when it came to heavy equipment like cranes... no one died. If we want to stop the graft, then perhaps it's time to pay the municipal inspectors a fair wage. Most are underpaid, especially electrical inspectors.

As to Jeff's question... why the code inspector is viewed higher in the food chain than HI's, the answers are quite simple:

- They have the backing and authority of the municipality/city/state, while we have no authority.

I believe, Joe, that we agree that just because someone has local governmental authority, that is no proof of compitance or that they wil accept any liability if they are wrong.

- They can stop the sale of a home, while we cannot.

Not around here. But they can (and do) follow-up on new sales, drop by and, in some cases, attept to solicit bribes, usually for items that were not called out during the original city inspection. I have been through many condominium inspections (the whole building, working for the association, where this has turned out to be the case. The builder is no longer held liable (by the city) but the association is. Any action that the association and its members can take against the builder has to be done as a separate, private lawsuit. The association has to have the problems fixed, at their expense, to satisfy the city.

Given that many CIs are union members, and have worked for some of these builders, is that a conflict of interest?

- They are the sole arbitor as to what meets code or not, while our opinion does not count.

At least in Chicago, that is why the city is very hesitant to actually publish the written code and make it available to the public. Additionally, individual inspectors have great lattitude to "interpret". This is the case in the back porch collapses. Many times, I have shown the documentation of certain points and requirements of the written code to CIs, things that they had failed to call out, and been told that "everyone does that" or "no body calls that out" or "Hey, you want to bankrupt the builder?" Remember, many of the code inspectors go back and forth between woring for the city and working for the builder, as well as working for the local Ward political machine.

Conflict of interest? Mixed with political corruption, payoffs, land development deals and expensive insurence policies, written by the Mayor's Brother's insurance company?

Well, DUH!!!

Have you every heard about Tony Resco or Patty Blogoevich?

- They are viewed as public servants, while we are hired guns.

Actually, around here, they are viewed as Union thugs.

These are just the tip of the iceberg.

Agree

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by bkelly2

Will started out making comments about Irish, unions and Orginised Crime. I fould these comments offensive and said so. Will said his comments were not Racist slurs, they were Ethnic Slurs.................WTF???

I posted, and started this thread, as a way to ask the question as to why, specifically in my area, but also around the country, CIs are viewed as so much mor authoritative as to a house's condition than HIs are. This denies the facts that HIs, almost always, spend more time inspecting, do a more complete job, have liability of they make a mistake or mess up, and are working for the specific safety of their clients.

I also, posted some facts about the CI dept in the Chicago area and its history of corruption, political influance and criminal action. I did not make any ethic slurs, but was merely calling a spade a spade.

In any case, if Brian is being honest, he is ignoring my posts and will never read this.

I still found this offensive................

One has no right, Constitutional, legal or otherwise, to protection from being offended. Being offended is, usually, a matter of haveing a thin skin and being overly emotional.

Bazzo chimes in an insinuates I am smoking Ileagle Drugs, I found this offensive, and said so.

I will let Brian work this out with Mr. Brazzo.

Will in his infinite wisdom went on about gogogle and font size??????????????/

I provided documentation of my assertion. I also pointed out that some people, when confronted with facts that they have chosen not to be able to accept, try to shout down the presentation of facts (by internet etiquite, posting in all caps or in a larger font, is considered to be yelling).

There is no need for this crap here, and I said so. Now I post some crap and I am the bad guy, give it a rest.................. Crap is crap.........

I would posit that Brian started, and perpetuated the "crap". Hence his posting in # 50, above. I will leave it to others to be the judge.

And I am sure one of Bazzos posts that I no longer read,
was about Mouth Wash..............

You want me to go quietly??????????????? Not happening Clean up your own yard first........................

I would posit that, to use Brian's analogy, that most of the dog leavings in this yard were his, or were precipiated by his posts.

I would very much enjoy, and appreciate it, if Brian cleaned up his contributions to this dirty yard, especially the Religious and sexual orientation ones.

Isn't it funny that some people resort to tactics that they abor and condemn in others (see post # 50), and they usually drag down an entire thread that was meant to be a serious discussion.

Now, can we get back to the original topic?