City Council Begins Probe Into Salvation Army Collapse
CBS 3 reports that City Council will begin its probe today into the deadly Salvation Army building collapse that killed six people and injured 13 others:
And as lawsuits stemming from the collapse are filed by victims, an official says the city is immune from financial liability.
Even if city regulations on demolitions were lax, it is considered unlikely that City Hall could be held liable in any of the lawsuits that result from the building collapse, because of the principle of sovereign immunity.
“The city is immune from suit for tort liability except in eight specifically enumerated circumstances,” notes the mayor’s top attorney, solicitor Shelley Smith.
Council President Darrell Clarke says the committee’s primary goal is to determine the role of city government in the fatal collapse and how to prevent it from ever happening again.
“Every day there is a potential collapse in place when there’s demolition — and not necessarily relating to demolition,” he said. “This group … has been tasked in a very aggressive way to come up with solutions both legislatively and regulatory and practices to put us in a position where this never happens again.”
