A report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer provides an update on the current situation in the Department of Building and Housing and some of the changes being implemented to improve the overall culture within the department.

End the nightmare
Jackson needs to wake up Cleveland's housing inspectors, and that might involve shaking some of them pretty hard

Cleveland's housing inspectors are the Chicago Cubs of public employees: They've been bad forever. Mayor after mayor has pledged to reform the inspectors - make them more professional, more account- able, more aggressive in combating the rising tide of blight - and all have failed.

Four years ago, Jane Campbell came into office promising that if the inspectors were split off from the Department of Community Development and set up in a separate agency, oversight and performance would improve. But Campbell declined to make inspectors reapply for jobs with the new department. Doing so might have set off a labor battle, but it also might have run off underachievers. Instead, she hoped a warm-hearted boss and some new technology would bring better results.

They didn't, as dramatically shown by recent data from the city's Housing Court and from an outside consultant hired to evaluate the Department of Building and Housing:

The number of inspections and citations has tumbled since at least 2003, despite a growing number of abandoned and obviously decrepit properties in many neighborhoods. Many violations remain unresolved for years - assuming reports were ever processed in the first place. Some inspectors barely work, and their managers refuse to push them. The hand-held computers that were supposed to improve efficiency have, in many cases, been tossed aside by employees unable or unwilling to use them. Veteran Councilman Jay Westbrook, who like most of his colleagues has railed for years about the poor performance of many inspectors, reviewed the latest reports and pronounced the department a "nightmare of ineffectiveness."

Now it's Mayor Frank Jackson's turn to take on the inspectors. He might seem an unlikely reformer. As a councilman from Central, Jackson was not among those who called for more aggressive inspections. Rather, he complained that citations were unfair to his many elderly and poor constituents. Even now, he refuses to measure success by the number of court cases filed.

And yet he pledges a multidepartment assault on blight: Instead of responding (if at all) to complaints from the mayor's office, council members or community groups, building inspectors will begin the kind of systematic review of properties that communities like Cleveland Heights do. Owners of problem properties who are old or in need will get financial help with repairs. Those able to pay - especially absentee landlords - will be hauled into court if they don't fix violations. The demolition budget for homes beyond repair will double.

Jackson realizes that his approach will demand a new culture among inspectors. So he has finally removed the "interim" tag from Building and Housing Director Ed Rybka's title and has hired former Municipal Judge Ronald O'Leary to direct and, if need be, discipline, the inspectors.

They'll need to bolster the hardworking inspectors at the same time they crack down on those motivated only to wait out another reformer. It won't be easy: The consultants warn that "some employees fear any change could result in accountability." Here's what they should fear more: Noncooperation should guarantee that the city take a very hard line in contract talks - including opening some inspection work to private bidding.

Too many city properties have deteriorated as inspectors looked away. The future of Cleveland's neighborhoods - and perhaps Jackson's young mayoralty - depends on changing that.

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