Chair Sanchez questions inspector pay, morale, and retention
Sanchez raises industry reports of low inspector pay, high turnover, and 70% of inspectors having five or fewer years on the job. Levy reports high morale from office visits and notes pay is negotiated by OLR. Tagani reports average tenure of 6.5 years, says DOB competes with higher-paying private sector, and notes workforce development investments.
Specifically with respect to inspector vacancies, we've heard from members in the industry that inspectors themselves are, they're experiencing low morale.
Their pay is low.
It's lower than their counterparts, of course, in the private sector.
Turnover is extremely high.
We were told that 70% of inspectors have five years or less on the job.
Please correct.
That if it's incorrect for HPD and the Department of Buildings, this is across NYCHA as well.
And that the workloads are increasing over time.
So can you just comment on the pay for inspectors?
Is there any collective bargaining coming up?
How do we retain this talent that is so key to keeping New York safe?
So I'll just speak quickly and then allow Commissioner Tagani to speak.
But I do want to say, and this is more anecdotal than fact, but I have just finished doing a tour of all of our code inspector offices, thanking them for the work they did during the last heat season.
And I will just say, you know, both encouraged not only by the morale, which was very high, and again, the work they do is really something to marvel at, but also the tenure of the average person I spoke to.
And again, I went to all of our offices.
In some cases, I met folks who have been doing this work for more than 20 years, in some cases as long as 40 years, so I was actually very encouraged.
We do hear the need for additional cars, and we were given an allocation in this year's executive budget for more vehicles to serve those inspectors.
As it relates to pay scale, obviously that is negotiated between the Office of Labor Relations and the union, so that is not something squarely within HPD's purview.
But we are very proud of our code enforcement team and feeling like they are also very much up to
the challenge and the new initiatives listed in the housing plan.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
For the DOB side, we have a budget headcount of about 650 inspectors, and currently we have 604 inspectors on payroll with
46 vacancies, but there are 25 inspectors in the pipeline.
The average tenure...
Based on numbers accumulated earlier this year, was actually higher than five.
It was about six and a half years for an inspector.
The work that we're doing is certainly, certainly there is a,
a high workload.
I will say that similar to Commissioner Levy, going around to the offices, particularly they seem energized by the focus on safety, on tenant protection, the housing plan and messages from the administration seems to have bolstered morale amongst
many of the inspectors.
And I will also say that for the work that we're doing, the difficulties are the same.
We compete against an industry that can pay more.
So we sort of push back by trying to provide workforce development.
We work with the union and get feedback from them and their leadership on what we can do to invest in inspectors.
And the last note I'll say on the number is we're actually at our second highest point in many years.
We're going back to 2020 when we were at our highest point.
And so over the last six years, I've really rebuilt and continue to rebuild by filling the vacancies.
You're welcome for our advocacy that works.
Okay.