The state is years behind in conducting safety checks of elevators, trusting that more than 2,000 on the overdue list have been kept in safe working condition by their owners.

The law requires annual checks plus more stringent safety exams by the state every three to five years, and both inspections are backlogged, officials said.

Labor Department officials who oversee elevator safety said the delays do not pose a risk because virtually all 6,100 elevators in Hawai'i are regularly serviced and repaired by private companies. But newly released data show 2,100 of them are overdue for state inspection, some by as much as six years.

At the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, 80 elevators in student dormitories, class buildings, libraries and research facilities were supposed to have been examined by state inspectors no later than Dec. 1, 2002, according to state Labor Department records.

The state now says those machines will be inspected by the end of this month.

The university said it has contracts in force to service and maintain elevators on all campuses, including Neighbor Island community colleges.

At the Manoa campus, the university is paying a total of $688,000 this year to five different elevator companies for services including "regular inspections, lubrication, mechanical adjustments, repairs and replacements of parts, load tests and other safety and maintenance work," according to Carolyn Tanaka, UH vice president for external affairs.

At Honolulu International Airport, more than 50 elevators were due for inspection in March 2003 and now will be examined by the end of April, according to the state. Inspectors began work at the airport Friday.

Another airport elevator was supposed to have been inspected no later than Jan. 1, 2001. And the deadline for inspecting an elevator at Hilo International Airport was Oct. 1, 2001.

Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said Friday that the Hilo airport elevator on the Labor Department's overdue list no longer exists and has been replaced by a new machine.

Ishikawa said all airport elevators in the state are covered by private service contracts.

The company that services the elevators at the airport is required to have four qualified staffers on site to handle problems with elevators or escalators.

The contract, which costs $855,000 a year, requires twice-monthly maintenance on each elevator as well as monthly and yearly inspections, said Ishikawa.

Nelson Befitel, head of the state Labor Department, which oversees elevator inspections, said the state has an exemplary record in elevator safety.

"No one can recall an equipment-related elevator accident in the last 10 years," Befitel said in an interview.

"Establishments are required to report all elevator accidents. Last year, there were 59 accidents reported and 72 in 2005," he said.

All were of the "slip-and-fall" variety unrelated to equipment malfunctions, said Befitel.

Owners of buildings that contain elevators must have contracts in place with private companies to perform regular maintenance and repair of elevators, and the state inspections serve as a backstop to assure that such work is being performed.

"At least 95 percent of the elevators in Hawai'i are under maintenance agreements," he said.

Ray Marquina, property manager at the Pioneer Plaza office building Downtown, said his company has an elevator repair company under contract and an elevator consultant on retainer to "make sure that we meet all the safety codes and safety standards."

Operating permits for the elevators that are issued by the state after annual inspections are available for the public to look at, but "no one has ever asked to see them since I became property manager three years ago," Marquina said.

BACKLOG TARGETED

Befitel said his department recognizes the legal requirements to conduct annual state inspections and is taking steps to make sure that the backlog is cleared away.

There are only five inspectors on staff, plus a supervisor, and they averaged 770 inspections each last year, said Befitel.

"We have asked the Legislature to fund two new positions," he said.

If those positions are filled — a big if — then the state will be able to perform all or nearly all of the annually mandated inspections each year, Befitel said.

But finding qualified inspectors who want to work for the state is a big problem, he noted.

Journeymen elevator repairers working in the private sector are paid an average of $80,000 to $90,000 a year, while the starting salary for the same work at the state is $31,000,

Thad Tomei, head of Local 126 of the Elevator Constructors union, acknowledged that members of his union are one of the the highest-paid trade union members in Hawai'i, receiving $44 per hour.

That makes it extremely difficult to attract skilled workers to the state payroll, said Befitel.

In fact, all five inspectors now doing the work for the state are retirees from the private sector.

Some other states and localities on the Mainland have privatized elevator inspections, requiring that the work be performed on a regular basis (usually annually) by certified personnel.

CONFLICTED WORK

Critics of that practice have said that privatization too often requires companies to inspect their own work or work performed by their competitors.

If new inspectors can't be found, the backlog will continue to grow, according to the state.

In a September 2006 memo on the backlog, Yash Nagpaul, head of the state's Boiler and Elevator Inspection Branch, said that until more inspectors are hired, "the backlog will continue to worsen at the rate of about 800-1,000 objects a year."

If the Legislature approves the two new positions, it will still take more than a year to recruit and train new employees "if we are lucky," Nagpaul wrote.

Pending employment of new inspectors, the state has "prioritized" the inspection work, said Befitel.

"We have authorized overtime to address the backlog," he said.

The inspectors will first address elevators that require a more exhaustive safety inspection that is supposed to be conducted every three to five years, said Befitel.

Priority will also go to the machines that have been on the backlog list the longest, particularly those in public facilities such as schools and airports.

The state is also stressing a "more efficient organization of our database" and will also require that inspections be conducted on a geographical basis to promote efficiency, Befitel continued.

There are no elevator inspectors on the Neighbor Islands, said Befitel. "We used to have one on Maui, but he retired."

So O'ahu inspectors travel to the Neighbor Islands. Travel costs must be paid by the owners of the elevators to be inspected.

FEE INCOME DOWN

The state charges for all its inspections, and revenues have dwindled as the backlog has grown, according to Labor Department data.

In 2003, inspections brought in $627,227, then steadily dropped to $430,647 last year.

Property owners are left wondering what to do when the "permit to operate" their elevators (sometimes posted in the machines themselves but more commonly held in maintenance or property management offices) has expired.

Back in 2001, for example, the property manager at the massive Bishop Square office building in downtown Honolulu called the elevator inspection office after the operating permits for the building's elevators and escalators had expired.

He was told that the inspections would take place by the end of the following month.

That didn't happen. The manager was then told that "the state inspectors will get to us as soon as they can" and that his permits "were extended and we are safe to operate our elevators and escalators until such time as the state can perform their required safety inspection," according to correspondence in state files.

Last week, state inspectors appeared at The Kalia residential condominium on 'Ena Road in Waikiki to examine six elevators overdue for inspections since June 2004.

"They just came today," said a property manager last Tuesday.

"They said they'd be back again tomorrow."

The facility has its own maintenance contract with a private firm, the manager said.

At the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort, which has many elevators on the state's overdue list, technicians working under a national contract with Otis Elevator Corp. repair and maintain the machinery, said John Clarke, director of property operations.

"We have certified technicians at the property daily who maintain, service and troubleshoot our system," Clarke said.

Outrigger Enterprises' Barry Wallace, executive vice president-hospitality services, made a similar statement about that company's hotel elevators.

"We maintain full-service agreements with several of Hawai'i's top elevator companies throughout the state," Wallace said.

Those technicians perform regular maintenance and inspections on Outrigger's elevators, Wallace said.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.