Frustration at City Hall’s Balky Elevators Keeps Going Up

Perhaps it was the ribbing from comedian Milton Berle. Or maybe it was the griping by every city worker from the mayor on down.

Either way, frustration over the elevator delays in City Hall has reached a new height: City Council President John Ferraro on Friday summoned the head of General Services to the council next week to brief lawmakers on the deplorable lift conditions.

The delays have snarled city business and cut into employees’ productivity, Ferraro said.

Oh, that explains it. Maybe if the elevators were better, the secessionists could drop their campaign.

But back to the lifts.

It didn’t help that Berle, who turned 90 this week, was forced to take a dirty, graffiti-covered freight elevator down one floor when the council honored him Wednesday.

“They are building a new elevator,” Berle deadpanned, “in another building. How long did I wait for the elevator? Five months I waited for that elevator.”

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The delays are nothing new to the 1,400 city workers who rely on them. A cigarette break can easily turn into a 20-minute exercise in irritation.

Forget trying to just run down for a cup of coffee--it’s lukewarm when you return and you’ve missed all those phone calls.

The department will soon install an “official use” elevator, which also has galled city workers who believe in the democratic way: The mayor, council members and other top city officials should suffer like the rest.

Mayor Richard Riordan didn’t blink this week when aides ushered him from the third floor up to his eighth-floor office on the dirty, smelly freight elevator.

The city’s General Services Department acknowledges that the elevator delays have grown worse recently but says that’s about to change.

By July 31, the elevators are to be renovated, complete with new motors and control panels.

“Service should be improved by then,” said Tony DeClue, the department’s assistant general manager.

While the elevators are being renovated, DeClue admitted, some of them have bypassed floors, and others have just failed to stop.

In asking for the briefing, Ferraro said: “Elevator service in City Hall has deteriorated significantly in the past few weeks--to such an extent, in fact, that it has become necessary to make it the subject of a motion.”

Now that is serious.

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In fact, so many council members wanted to join in the motion with Ferraro that a deputy city attorney had to stop them. Only seven can sign a motion; nine did. This from a group that can’t get a majority vote on much else.

“They’re the elevators from hell,” summed up Greg Nelson, chief deputy to Councilman Joel Wachs, who escorted Berle to the council chamber.

It took three staff members to wait for different elevators in case one showed up. None did. Except for the grimy freight elevator.

What is uncertain is exactly when the head of General Services will show up to report to the council. After all, he has to take the elevator to get there.