PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker announced Thursday she’s splitting up another city department.
The Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) will become two separate entities. One will focus on building safety. The other will oversee enforcement of quality of life issues that were put under L&I’s purview in what Parker called “mission creep.”
”L&I became tasked with enforcing a wide array of quality of life bills ranging from bed bug legislation, nuisance business legislation, the plastic bag ban,” Parker said. “They are incredibly important to neighborhoods across the city but L and I became the default department, taking the time, the staff, the resources away from L&I’s core mission and that is the safe and lawful construction and use of buildings.”
Parker appointed Basil Merenda, a long-time civil servant and most recently Deputy Mayor for Labor, as Commissioner of Inspections, Safety and Compliance, which will focus on building safety. She appointed Bridget Collins-Greenwald — until today the Commissioner of Public Property — to lead L&I for Quality of Life.