Borough residents blast Buildings Dept.

Residents from all areas of Queens spent more than two hours blasting the Department of Buildings (DOB) sharing individual horror story after horror story at a public forum held at P.S. 113 in Glendale by a New York City Council task force formed to improve the department.
&#8220The Department of Buildings should be ashamed of themselves,” said Kim Ohanian, a member of Community Board 7, who spoke passionately about her frustrations with the DOB at the meeting.
At the meeting, which was held on Wednesday, June 21, at P.S. 113 in Glendale, members of the task force including Councilmembers Dennis Gallagher, James Oddo, Leroy Comrie, Melinda Katz, John Liu and Helen Sears listened to residents' complaints and suggestions on how to improve the DOB.
Councilman Oddo decided to form the coalition after hearing many of his constituents voice their frustrations with the DOB on a number of levels. Many of the people in attendance testified about their dissatisfaction with inspectors, overdevelopment, buildings being used for purposes they were not intended for, and the as-of-right certification process.
After hearing many residents testify at during the hearing, Oddo expressed his own frustrations.
&#8220We are either up against an incredible degree of incompetence or out and out corruption,” Oddo said, adding that the only choice they have is to try to fix the problem.
One way to help is to provide additional funding for the DOB.
&#8220We are fighting for more money for this agency precisely for the things that we talked about,” Oddo said. &#8220I can't say that support in the Council is unanimous. Unfortunately too many of my colleagues have different priorities.”
However, Oddo said that the money that they are pushing for would only be a &#8220drop in the bucket” to what the agency needs, and that additional funding would have to come directly from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In a statement, the DOB said that it has made many improvements throughout the past four years, and &#8220it is our hope that the Task Force will solicit meaningful feedback at its Queens forum.”
&#8220We are losing our neighborhoods block by block, house by house, and we have to fix this now,” said Patricia Dolan, a member of the Kew Gardens Hills Civic Association and Vice President of the Queens Civic Congress.