Report: Cleveland lags in housing inspections

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland housing inspectors do less work than their counterparts in other big Ohio cities despite Mayor Frank Jackson’s vow three years ago to make their performance a priority, a newspaper has found.

An analysis by The Plain Dealer published Sunday found that nine housing inspectors wrote an average of one violation notice or less per week, according to an analysis of records between July 2005 and July 2008.

The newspaper also found that 26 housing inspectors averaged 10 or fewer inspections a week, less than inspectors in Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo.

Columbus inspectors average eight to 15 inspections each day, said Code Enforcement Manager Dana Rose. Cincinnati inspectors average 10 to 11 inspections a day, said Ed Cunningham, manager of the city’s property maintenance-code enforcement division.

Jackson defended the overall performance of Cleveland’s Building and Housing Department.

He also cited the challenges of a foreclosure crisis that has left neighborhoods filled with abandoned homes.

But Jackson and city Building and Housing Director Ed Rybka acknowledged that some inspectors do less work than others.

“Some inspectors are a Cadillac,” Rybka said. “Some are Edsels.”

The city has dismissed or disciplined eight inspectors since consultants first reported three years ago that some inspectors appeared to do little work, Rybka said.

Rybka said the numbers analyzed by the Plain Dealer failed to reflect that some inspections, especially those in blighted neighborhoods, take much longer than others.