PHILADELPHIA-At a public hearing on Thursday, Bennett Levin, a professional engineer and former head of the Department of Licenses and Inspections, testified that the agency's performance had fallen off considerably since the mid-1990s.
It was the department's poor performance that contributed to a series of fatal accidents long before the Center City building collapse in June that killed six people, he charged.
"The Market Street collapse is just the latest catastrophe in a tragic string of fatal events that can be traced back to the [One Meridian] fire, with three dead firefighters," in 1991, Levin told a City Council committee that has been investigating the city's demolition practices.
"No right-thinking person would tolerate managing either the police department or the fire Department in the manner in which L&I has been managed," he said.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in a statement said, "The former commissioner has a right to his opinion as a private citizen, but many things have changed in the Department of Licenses and Inspections in the almost two decades since he was in city government.” See story in The Inquirer.
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