Building Safety

There are two areas about the World Trade Center attack that have not been addressed. Builders and engineers must develop a quicker way to evacuate skyscrapers than simply telling people to use the stairs, not the elevators, in an emergency. And where was the reserve of water or firefighting foam? Most of the rescue personnel perished because they had to carry the necessary equipment into the building and up the stairs (the same ones people were using to exit). There should be a moratorium on such buildings until techniques are developed that give the priority to saving people's lives over office square footage.

The U.S. attorney on Wednesday filed a single bribery charge against a retired inspector at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, making him the third employee of the agency to face federal criminal prosecution in less than two years. Samuel In, 65, agreed to plead guilty to a count of felony bribery stemming from a 2008 incident in which he accepted $5,000 in cash from a Koreatown businessman, according to documents filed in federal court. As part of his plea agreement, In admitted to accepting more than $30,000 worth of bribes involving at least a dozen properties that he handled in his official capacity between March 2007 and December 2010, said Assistant U.S. Atty.

After Turkey's monster earthquake in August, municipal inspectors ruled that this town's damaged supermarket was structurally unsafe. They painted a large red X on the outside and ordered it torn down. The owner, Necdet Yilmaz, protested, but the mayor backed the inspectors. Then the businessman traveled to Ankara, the Turkish capital, and coaxed a bureaucrat into a fateful decision. The order was reversed.

A Los Angeles zoning official refused to throw out building permits issued for a hotly contested Wal-Mart grocery store in Chinatown, handing the retail giant another victory at City Hall. In a 24-page report, Associate Zoning Administrator Maya Zaitzevsky found the Department of Building and Safety did not err or abuse its discretion when it gave Wal-Mart permission to upgrade an existing retail space at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues. The decision, issued Dec. 20, was praised Thursday by Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo, who said it would send "a clear message to those who seek to block economic development only to serve their own special interests.

The Valley Briefing that appeared in this section last Sunday was entitled "Tallying the Aid." Its main purpose was to assess, by ZIP code area in the San Fernando Valley, the amounts of earthquake recovery grants and loans from the federal government and the widely varying distribution of the same.

A Los Angeles Municipal Court commissioner has ordered a Culver City man to pay $6,150 in fines and restitution fees for slum conditions at an apartment complex he owns. Commissioner John Rafferty convicted Larry Nitta, 65, of six counts of violating various fire, health, building and safety codes at Nitta's three-story building at 2709 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. Nitta also was placed on 24 months' probation and ordered to return to court Sept.

The owner of a vacant Hollywood apartment house has until Feb. 1 to repair his 36-unit facility or begin tearing it down, the city attorney said Wednesday. David Foley, 40, pleaded no contest to six violations of various health and building safety codes at the four-story apartment house at 5244 Melrose Ave., said Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn. Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Kristi Lousteau ordered Foley to pay $8,126 in fines and other costs and placed him on three years probation.

How sweet it is! For as many years as there have been slumlords, tenants of dirty and unsafe buildings have complained that if their landlord only had to live in his building the place would be fixed up in no time. Now they'll have a chance to test their theory, because a creative Los Angeles judge has sentenced a man convicted of repeated building and safety violations to serve part of his term in one of his own buildings. Los Angeles Municipal Judge Veronica Simmons McBeth ordered Dr.

A high-rise apartment building under renovation in Shanghai erupted in flames Monday, killing 53 people and injuring 90, the official New China News Agency said. A witness said the blaze started when building materials caught fire and spread up scaffolding surrounding the 28-story tower, the news agency reported. Firefighters facing difficulty reaching the upper levels set up hoses on top of an adjacent building to finally contain the blaze, which raged for more than four hours.

FBI agents probing allegations of bribe-taking at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety have obtained records and questioned individuals about a soft-spoken building inspector who retired from his post nearly a year ago. Federal investigators have interviewed current and former department employees about Samuel In, a Korean-speaking employee who had been assigned to Koreatown and nearby neighborhoods. Building and Safety officials have responded to a grand jury request for documents on In, who quit his job last May, two days after he was placed on administrative leave amid an internal corruption investigation.

Ten employees at the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety have been fired for wrongdoing so far this year, five times the number who lost their jobs for such a reason over the last decade, the agency's top executive said. Although the department is the subject of an FBI bribery sting, six of the 10 workers were terminated following an investigation into the falsification of time cards, said Robert "Bud" Ovrom, the department's general manager. Ovrom said five clerks and a supervisor were fired earlier this year after a bureau chief showed up at the department's Van Nuys office shortly after 7 a.m. one day and found some of them missing.

The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety fired a 27-year employee after determining that he had accepted bribes, making him the third person at the agency to lose his job as a result of a major corruption probe, officials said Wednesday. Albert Acosta, 54, was fired Friday, department spokesman David Lara said in a statement. He worked as a building mechanical inspector in the department's Van Nuys office, where he earned more than $83,000 annually. Lara said officials discovered that Acosta had solicited funds from contractors while on duty but would not provide additional details.

A former building inspector who has come under scrutiny in a bribery investigation at Los Angeles City Hall allegedly advised a landlord in 2009 to pay $15,000 to resolve a permitting dispute, according to a fraud lawsuit filed last year. Kyong Ho Cho, 63, filed a case against Samuel In stemming from code enforcement violations at his rental property on Venice Boulevard, where inspectors had cited him for illegally building an apartment inside his garage. Cho said In told him that In's business partner, Tae Seog Lee, would be able to fix the problem — which was caused by a previous contractor — for a fee, the lawsuit states.

Los Angeles officials have significantly expanded their internal investigation into corruption allegations at the city's building department, driven by fears of a much wider pattern of wrongdoing. In the month since two inspectors were arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes, the Department of Building and Safety has received three subpoenas from a federal grand jury, including one seeking personnel records for at least 11 current and former employees. Two department employees have been placed on leave over the last week, pending an investigation, officials confirm.

Failing to give city inspectors the brush-off, young artists Wednesday painted over a 75-foot mural they had created after officials issued a $360 citation to the Valley Village woman who had commissioned the artwork to brighten an alley next to her home. Barbara Black, a retired studio costume illustrator, said she reluctantly ordered the mural's obliteration after officials threatened to fine her an additional $1,925 if it wasn't removed. The initial citation was issued last month, shortly after the mural was completed.

In response to complaints from Van Nuys City Hall employees who feel they need hard hats and surgical masks to protect themselves from quake debris and dust, Los Angeles city officials are considering spending up to $3 million to relocate 160 workers from the quake-damaged facility until a replacement is built.

A high-rise apartment building under renovation in Shanghai erupted in flames Monday, killing 53 people and injuring 90, the official New China News Agency said. A witness said the blaze started when building materials caught fire and spread up scaffolding surrounding the 28-story tower, the news agency reported. Firefighters facing difficulty reaching the upper levels set up hoses on top of an adjacent building to finally contain the blaze, which raged for more than four hours.

The general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety has been placed on administrative leave by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa amid a police investigation into a rape allegation made against him. Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department are investigating allegations by a woman who says Andrew Adelman raped her last month at his downtown condominium, according to court documents obtained Tuesday. Adelman has not been arrested or charged. Adelman's attorney, Mark Geragos, stressed that the accusations have not been proved.