Empire City — The clock above the City Hall rotunda has been running backward since the ninth of September, a condition the Department of Buildings has classified as temporary and has now classified as temporary five times.

The clock is correct twice daily, which the department described in a written statement as “within tolerance.”

The statement did not specify the tolerance.

Deputy commissioner Ondine Sarkady told the Times that the mechanism is original to the building, that no replacement parts have been manufactured since 1931, and that the department has been advised against “interfering with it further.”

Asked what interference had occurred initially, Ms. Sarkady said a man had been sent up in September.

Asked what the man had done, Ms. Sarkady said the department was not in a position to characterize the work.

Adaptation

Municipal employees have adapted with what the Times can only describe as enthusiasm.

The permits office now opens at what it calls four o'clock and closes at what it calls nine, and has reported its highest throughput in a decade. Staff arrive as the clock passes nine, work until it reaches four, and go home having, by the building's own reckoning, put in five hours before lunch.

“Morale is the best I have seen,” said office supervisor Bartholomew Reap. “We are getting through the backlog. We are ahead. I do not want to say we are ahead of schedule, because the schedule is also on the clock.”

The Department of Finance has requested that the clock be repaired before the end of the fiscal year, which the clock places in June of last year.

A Wider Question

The rotunda clock is visible from eleven blocks of the financial district, and the Times has received nineteen letters from readers who have missed appointments, four from readers who have kept appointments they did not have, and one from a reader who reports having been early for six consecutive weeks and would like it to continue.

Dr. Helena Vosk, professor of applied optics at Empire City Community College, cautioned against reading too much into the matter.

“It is a clock,” Dr. Vosk said. “It is going the wrong way. This is not an optical question and I would be grateful if this newspaper would stop telephoning me about things that are not optical questions.”

The Department of Buildings said Monday that the condition remains temporary.