The City Council gave a unanimous thumbs-up on Thursday to a new bill that would prevent repeat offenders from continuing to abuse the city’s self-certification program. Under the new legislation (which Mayor Bloomberg is expected to sign into law), anyone caught twice falsely certifying building plans would lose the right to sign off on projects. (Kinda like when Mr. S lost his privileges last summer.) Some council members want to see the self-certification program tossed altogether but that sounds unlikely. “What we don’t want to do is ever put such a level of regulation that we unfairly or unnecessarily slow down the building process in the city of New York,” said council speaker Christine Quinn. “If the reforms we put in place don’t go far enough and we see that, we can always come back to the question.” We don’t think self-certification needs to be eliminated; penalties and enforcement just need to be stepped way up.
Council Moves Against Scofflaw Builders [NY Sun]
Cheating Architects Get Spanked [Curbed]
Photo by Lawrence L.