The Mayor will formally appoint LiMandri after signing into lawIntroduction 755-A, which passed the City Council Thursday. Thatlegislation requires that either the Commissioner or First DeputyCommissioner of the DOB be a licensed Architect or Engineer.According to a prepared press release, signing into lawIntroduction 755-A will give Mayors needed flexibility in choosingthe person that will run the DOB, "while also ensuring that anindividual with the technical expertise of a licensed architect orengineer is in the department's highest leadership levels."

Mayor Bloomberg says in the statement that as Acting BuildingsCommissioner, LiMandri "launched new strategies for rigorouslyimplementing worksite safety, hired new inspectors and auditors tostaff new multi-disciplinary investigative and enforcement teams,and cracked down on illegal after-hours construction, unsafedemolitions of the interiors of buildings, dangerous sidewalk shedsand other serious construction site problems."

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, LiMandri has significantlyincreased the agency's enforcementpresence by targeting resources to areas most at risk ofnoncompliance. In July, he revealed a series of changesregarding tower crane safety designed to strengthen maintenance andinspection requirements to advance safety in and aroundconstruction sites with tower cranes. LiMandri launched an analysisof three high-risk areas of construction: concrete, excavations andcranes operations to identify ways to make New York Cityconstruction safer. Under this $4 million Construction Analysis andOversight Plan, about 20 engineering experts are examining thesystems, protocols, tools and management of these forms ofhigh-risk construction, while simultaneously studying theDepartment's own processes--ultimately enabling the DOB todetermine what areas the industry needs to improve to minimize riskand how the agency can best oversee and regulate these types ofconstruction.