City Catches Self in Quake Inspection Crackdown

When the city’s Building and Safety Department sets out this week to crack down on buildings that haven’t been inspected for earthquake damage, one such structure won’t be hard to find.

It’s the department’s own facility in West Los Angeles, one of 61 structures officials say haven’t undergone the mandated inspections.

The two-story, 3,800-square-foot building at 1828 Sawtelle Blvd. was required to be inspected by last December.

When told about the building, Councilman Hal Bernson, head of the city’s Ad Hoc Committee on Earthquake Recovery, snickered, then composed himself and said: “The city has to comply just like everybody else.”

City officials are not sure why the inspection has not been completed but suggest that it may simply have been a bureaucratic oversight.

A similar oversight was cited in August, when embarrassed city officials learned that a vacant house in Watts that was declared a public nuisance was owned by the city of Los Angeles.

Eventually, the city cited itself and scheduled the house for demolition.

The building on Sawtelle Boulevard came to light when Building and Safety officials launched a crackdown on the owners of buildings who had failed to inspect steel-frame joints as required by law.

The city building turned up on that list.

Commercial building owners and industry representatives say the high cost of inspections and repairs, as well as a weak rental market, have made it difficult for owners to afford the earthquake work.

To prod building owners to act, city officials began to mail letters to them this week, giving them 30 days to submit inspection reports.

Those who fail to complete the reports will be issued notices of noncompliance. Such a notice acts much like a property lien, making it difficult for the owner to sell or refinance the building.

Most of the inspections were due by December 1995.

The damage inflicted on steel-frame buildings by the Northridge earthquake surprised many structural engineers who previously believed the frames were virtually immune to seismic forces.

An ordinance requiring inspection and repair applies only to those 259 steel-frame commercial buildings in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, locations where damage was most widespread.

Richard Holguin, building and safety supervisor, said he recalls seeing the Sawtelle Boulevard building on the list of uninspected structures, but assumed that the city was simply leasing the property from a private owner.

He said he assumes that a notice about the required earthquake inspection was sent to the registered owner--in this case, the General Services Department, which is responsible for all city buildings.

But Dan Rosenfeld, who is in charge of managing the city’s real estate, said the oversight may be an example of a diffuse system for managing and maintaining city property.

Although the General Services Department is responsible for all city buildings, Rosenfeld said, one unit within the department is responsible for maintenance and another is responsible for leasing and buying property. Still another department, the Bureau of Engineering, is responsible for completing seismic upgrades, he said.

“Until there is some integration on this building management system, we will continue to have important work fall through the cracks,” Rosenfeld said.

Nonetheless, he insisted the city be held responsible for the work, just as the city holds building owners responsible for inspecting privately owned buildings.

“It absolutely needs to be done,” he said. “It’s integral.”