New hotel balcony safety inspection regulations — the direct result of a Pompano Beach accident in which a toddler miraculously survived a seven-story fall — are being described as vague, of little impact and possibly illegal.
Legislation passed in Tallahassee this spring after Ryan Smith’s fall at the Quality Inn Oceanside merely stated that a certifying inspector of hotel balconies, platforms, stairways and railings be “competent.”
Clarifying the law last month, the state Division of Hotels and Restaurants stated that inspectors used by hotels must have at least two years’ experience in the maintenance of the structures to which the law pertains.
Some say that is insufficient.
Florida’s description of who can inspect hotel balconies, platforms, stairways and railings “sounds like a 4-year-old could do it,” complains Jon Krupnick, the attorney for the injured 2-year-old from Huntington Beach, N.Y.
“The law is very, very vague. What is ‘competent?’ Where in the Yellow Pages do I (look)?” asked Leo Gillespie, owner of a three-story Howard Johnson motel in Palm Beach.
The new law applies to hotels or motels three stories or higher. Certification of balcony safety must be completed by Jan. 1.
Kelli Fulcher, the director of the Florida Department of Business Regulation’s Hotels and Restaurants division, says she has been receiving about 20 calls a day from hotels asking for a definition of competence. But to be more specific would be improper, she said.
“We don’t have the statutory right to make the rules stronger than the law,” Fulcher said.
The sponsor of the law, state Sen. Peter Weinstein, D-Coral Springs, said that as the law was formulated, the hotel and motel industry and the Department of Business Regulation opposed getting too specific.
They claimed it could needlessly drive up costs, Weinstein said. But given the end result, he said, “I think the department kind of dropped the ball on this case.”
Some hotel operators contacted say they favor the intent of the law, and are not put out by the regulations.
“A good business manager would do it regardless of the legislation,” said Philip Goldfarb, general manager of the 14-story, 230-room Guest Quarter’s Hotel on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.
Tony Satterfield, general manager of the 11-story, 242-room oceanside Howard Johnson hotel in Hollywood, said he already has used maintenance personnel and submitted the paper work to Tallahassee, where balcony certification was given.
Satterfield said the public should not be concerned about hoteliers cutting corners with their own employees. “A legitimate hotel operator doesn’t want blood on his hands, doesn’t want somebody falling off a balcony,” he said.
Unsatisfied, however, is Mike Dodds, a Fort Lauderdale architect, who offered his advice to Fulcher’s division. Dodds questions the impact and legality of the law. “I think it has not achieved anything at all. It’s a whitewash.”
Dodds wrote the state Attorney General’s Office on who can legally perform the work.
He found out that the state Board of Engineers had discussed the issue in July, before the division issued guidelines last month.
The consensus was that the “only persons” legally competent were engineers, architects and possibly certified building inspectors, said Edwin A. Bayo, an assistant attorney general and counsel to the board.
“What (the division has) done is broken the law,” said Dodds, who has an engineering firm.
About 5,000 hotel and motel operators received a mass mailing from the state last month about the new law and safety certification.
Included was a form to be returned to Tallahassee listing areas inspected, defects found, the date repairs were made, the inspector, and his or her credentials. Operators have until Jan. 1 to comply.
If they do not, they face a hearing and potential fines up to $1,000 and, in the extreme case, closure, Fulcher said. The balcony certification is good for three years.
State hotel inspectors will conduct spot checks to make sure railings are as safe as the hotels claim, Fulcher said.
That has always been a part of a state inspector’s job, but with the new law, they will be more vigilant, officials say. If balconies are unsafe despite certification, operators can be fined by the stas legs and back, and mental problems of being a very apprehensive and clinging child, whereas before he was more outgoing,” he said.
While on vacation with his parents, the toddler, then 18 months old, allegedly leaned against a corroded railing that gave way. The boy suffered a broken vertebra and other injuries. His parents have sued for negligence, saying an inspection and repair program would have prevented the fall.
