November 2–9, 2000

city beat

Daycare Scare

Care fears: New management has taken care of problems found here in 1998. At that time, L&I Commissioner McLaughlin overruled safety violations discovered by PFD and L&I inspectors. photo: Shoshanna Wiesner

by Ralph Cipriano

Continuing its campaign to ensure that life safety issues are dealt with properly by the city, the fire department is asking the city inspector general to review a 1998 decision by Edward J. McLaughlin — then Department of Licenses & Inspections Deputy Commissioner — to allow a private daycare center to remain open despite official concerns about child safety.

The inspector general’s office is investigating L&I’s practice of dismissing fire code violations against fire department recommendations.

The daycare case, since resolved, involved the Falls of Schuylkill Child Care Center at 3714 Midvale Ave., according to an account detailed in city records. On Nov. 17, 1998, Marcia Nelson, an inspector in L&I’s commercial and industrial fire unit, told a daycare official it was against the law to keep 20 tots on the second floor of a building with no automatic sprinkler system and no certified fire alarms. The children were all under 2 1/2 years old.

Nelson and other officials were concerned that in the event of a fire, daycare employees would have to evacuate 20 toddlers from the second story, as well as 25 other children from the first floor.

The L&I inspector told the daycare official she had 24 hours to move the tots from the second floor to the first floor, or else L&I would show up the next day and post a cease operations order on the second floor. The daycare official’s name is given only as "Sharon" in city documents. The daycare’s new management says that they do not know the woman’s last name, and that she no longer works there.

L&I’s visit had been prompted by an earlier inspection by Lt. Martin LaBree of the city’s fire code unit. Another L&I inspector, John Cooper, inspected the daycare center on Nov. 18, and concurred with Nelson’s recommendations. City officials cited the daycare center for 15 fire code violations and two electrical violations.

The daycare official, however, balked at the request to move the tots. She told L&I officials she was a neighbor of then-Mayor Rendell, and that she was going to call the mayor’s office and complain, according to a source in the fire department. No cease would be posted, the daycare official predicted. "It’s not gonna happen," she said, according to the source.

The daycare official turned out to be right. Then-Deputy Commissioner McLaughlin intervened and overruled the two L&I inspectors and the lieutenant from the fire department, the source said. According to the fire department source, an L&I supervisor who declined comment was also overruled by McLaughlin. The cease operations order was never posted. Fire department officials did not follow up because they believed the problem had been corrected by L&I, the source said.

"The frightening thing," said the source, "is that a deputy commissioner who knows nothing about life safety comes out and overrules everybody as a result of the woman making a call to the mayor’s office." The case was brought to the inspector general’s attention because it showed the city’s head code enforcement official had "no comprehension of life safety issues or total disregard for life safety issues," the source said.

Fire department officials are speaking anonymously to City Paper because they say they have been threatened by a deputy managing director with dismissal if they go on the record The deputy managing director, Debora Russo Haines, has denied the charge.

The city’s inspector general did not return a phone call. The inspector general is currently investigating decisions by top L&I officials to dismiss 100 fire code violations at 15 Center City high-rises or apartment buildings owned or managed by Philadelphia Management Corp.

McLaughlin told at least 50 L&I employees at a private meeting in September that he was a personal friend of Ronald Caplan, president of Philadelphia Management, according to two sources who attended the meeting. McLaughlin also told fellow L&I employees that he formerly lived in a Philadelphia Management property, and that Caplan previously gave McLaughlin’s son a job, as a result of a request from McLaughlin, the sources said.

McLaughlin was out of the office Monday, according to a spokesperson. He was appointed L&I Commissioner in May 1999 by Former Mayor Rendell, who said at the time that McLaughlin had "reinvigorated the department’s relationship with the business community." Rendell, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is out on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, according to a spokesman for the DNC, and could not be reached.

On Wednesday morning, Deputy Commissioner Dominic Verdi said he wasn’t aware of the specifics involving the daycare center.

"Unfortunately, you’ve got me at a disadvantage," Verdi said. "What happened two years ago with that daycare center I have no idea."

Verdi, however, said the L&I inspectors should have initiated a fire watch where security officers patrol the property, usually at the owner’s expense. "My question back to them [the inspectors] would have been, what about a fire watch," he said.

Verdi said that McLaughlin was probably looking out for parents, who would have had no place to leave their children if the daycare was shut down. "That would be the most gravest thing we could do."

He also defended the L&I commissioner, saying, "I’ve worked with him [McLaughlin] long enough to know he will not ignore life safety issues."

This is not the first time McLaughlin has personally intervened in a case and overruled the safety concerns of subordinates. Last year, McLaughlin overrode the safety concerns of two department officials who wanted to evacuate a 17-story college dormitory that was under construction. The high-rise had open elevator shafts, combustible trash throughout the building and an uncertified fire alarm system. When a building inspector and a district supervisor refused to sign a 90-day certificate of occupancy, McLaughlin signed the document twice, both as building inspector and district supervisor.

The Falls of Schuylkill Child Care Center was cited in November 1998 for storing combustible trash in the basement and stairwells, according to city records. The daycare center was located in a three-story church owned by the Falls Baptist Church.

The daycare center was also cited for not having a certificate of occupancy on the second floor where the babies were kept, and for not having second-story doors that automatically closed. In addition, the alarm system at the daycare center had not been tested annually, as required by city law, for the past two years. The daycare center also was cited for lack of an evacuation plan, illuminated exit signs and an automatic fire detection system, according to city records.

The daycare operator appealed the violations to the city’s Board of Safety and Fire Prevention. The management of the daycare has since changed hands and the official who had argued with city officials has since left the company.

On March 18, 1999, Fire Commissioner Harold B. Hairston wrote Christina Alvarez, president of the daycare center, and said that city officials had accepted a request for a variance to install a new fire alarm system throughout the building, in lieu of a sprinkler system.

"A full-blown $9,000 alarm system" was installed in April 1999, said Judy Lipschutz, director of the daycare center. In addition, the new management made other improvements. And the result was, "they [city officials] haven’t been back since we did what he had to," Lipschutz said. The Board of Safety and Fire Prevention had also asked the daycare center to enclose stairways and install self-closing doors with wire glass, along with smoke detectors.