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An angry crowd gathered last week to demand answers to a growing problem – but one main question remains: Can the City Council effectively reform the Department of Buildings?

In Glendale more than 200 civic-minded residents from across the borough expressed their distress at the city agency responsible for approving and enforcing building permits.

Some hardly needed the help of a microphone, while others vented their fury toward Council members for not stepping in sooner to enforce the issue. Even more brought enlarged photograph examples while reciting prepared speeches, in their attempt to portray the DOB as incapable of handling one of the borough’s biggest development periods in recent memory.

“The Department of Buildings should be ashamed of themselves,” said Kim Ohanian, president of the Queensborough Hill Civic Association. “They have ruined our lives.”

One by one, residents cited staffing shortages, self-certifications, illegal conversions, demolitions and zoning laws as some of their main concerns. Nobody was on hand from the DOB to answer questions.

While listening to complaints and even referring to DOB plan examiners as “incompetent morons,” Minority Leader James Oddo (R-Staten Island) said he was looking to package legislation and allocate more funds with hopes that Mayor Bloomberg will see the DOB reform measures as necessary.

“We are part of the solution, we are not part of the problem,” said Oddo.

Listed on the brochure promoting the event was the Queens City Council delegation. Of its 14 members, six actually attended and the stage’s top ranking invitee, Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) was a no-show, due to what her staff member said Tuesday was a scheduling conflict.