Audit sears HFD safety unit
Report rips bureau over inspection process, inflated numbers, overtime
The Houston Fire Department division responsible for ensuring building safety keeps inadequate records, does not examine buildings on a regular schedule and inflated its inspection numbers, all while exceeding its overtime budget, according to an audit released by the city controller’s office Thursday.
The audit for fiscal years 2015 and 2016 is the latest in a series of blistering critiques of the Life Safety Bureau and casts doubt on whether the city is complying with its fire code.
Just 526 of Houston’s more than 5,000 apartment buildings were inspected in the last two fiscal years, well below the bureau’s goal of 470 apartment inspections per month. There is also no evidence the city inspected Bush Intercontinental, Hobby or Ellington airports within the last two years.
Many of the 28 highrisk problems — from an incomplete inspection database to poor job training — were identified by the controller’s office more than a decade ago.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s when, unfortunately, something happens,” City Controller Chris Brown said. “We need to make sure that we don’t let this
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s when, unfortunately, something happens,” Chris Brown, city controller
one go another 12 years without any action.”
Fire Chief Samuel Peña, who was appointed last year, said he welcomed the audit and has pledged to make a series of changes.
"Nobody likes to be told their baby's ugly, but right now there's a lot of need," Peña said.
Among the latest audit findings:
• The Life Safety Bureau spent $5.6 million on firefighter overtime in fiscal years 2015 and 2016, $2.4 million over budget.
• Inspectors provided many hotel, motel, highrise and apartment building owners with self-inspection checklists rather than conducting inspections themselves.
• The city does not require the Life Safety Bureau to inspect buildings before issuing certificates of occupancy, except in the case of hazmat facilities.
• The “inadequate” — and at times “non-existent” — recordkeeping system consists of storing inspection reports in the city’s database, file cabinets and inspectors’ desk drawers.
To address failings uncovered in the audit, Peña promised reforms that include finalizing a riskbased inspection program and regular inspection cycle by this summer; improving the bureau's database; ceasing to rely on self-inspections; and working to ensure fire inspections are completed before the city issues certificates of occupancy.
Frayed relations
Leadership changes also were in the works.
Fire Marshal Jerry Ford stepped down last week, and Peña said he expects to tap Ford's successor in the coming weeks.
"Our biggest priority is the inspection process," Peña said.
Mayor Sylvester Turner's spokeswoman said the mayor, who was returning Thursday from a trade mission to Israel, would not be available for comment but was aware of the audit and would work to address the issues it identified.
The controller's audit, which a Life Safety Bureau chief requested, comes at a time of frayed relations between the city and its fire department.
The fire union hit an impasse last month in its efforts to negotiate a new contract with higher pay, and the fire pension board has sued the city alleging the pension reform plan signed into law last month violates the Texas Constitution.
The Life Safety Bureau, part of the Fire Marshal's Office, has been plagued for decades by shoddy record keeping, poor training and questionable inspection practices, audits and departmental records show.
That record came under intense scrutiny last year after a Spring Branch warehouse storing more than 40,000 pounds of hazardous chemicals burned down, eight years after the fire department last inspected it.
The mayor responded by calling for the city to more regularly inspect buildings, including those that store hazardous materials.
The bureau previously did not have an inspection schedule for facilities that store hazardous materials, according to the audit. Fire department inspectors called the Chronicle in the aftermath of the Spring Branch fire, asking for the newspaper's map of potentially harmful hazmat facilities.
The hazmat team now is in the process of identifying all of the buildings under their purview, with the goal of establishing an inspection cycle, the audit said.
Financial constraints
Inspection schedules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, Guy Colonna of the National Fire Protection Association said, but association standards indicate high-risk occupancies such as apartment buildings, hotels and health care facilities ought to be inspected annually.
"Not enough has been done," said Councilwoman Brenda Stardig, who chairs the city's public safety and homeland security committee.
Though she acknowledged the city's financial constraints — next year's budget trims about $14 million from the fire department to help close a $123 million gap — Stardig said Houston has no choice but to improve its inspection process.
"Performance factors must be in place, and accountability, communication," Stardig said. "But we also must ensure that we've given them the tools to do so."