Albuquerque Looks to Axe Elevator Inspection Program

Tim Keller, mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, sent legislation to the City Council that would axe the city’s US$167,000 elevator maintenance program, Albuquerque Journal reports. A city planning department spokesman observes that Albuquerque is the only city in New Mexico that has such a program, which involves sending a city employee to commercial buildings to check elevators’ ropes and counterweights, car controls, lighting and adherence to American Society of Mechanical Engineers requirements. Passage of the legislation would shift responsibility for compliance to property owners, who would need to hire third-party inspectors. A city official says that is the standard in other cities in the state. Albuquerque currently employs one elevator inspector who performs annual checks on 1,586 elevators, but funding for that position was recently cut. That employee would shift to another position within the planning department.