At Wednesday evening's budget workshop, Attorney Robert Pierce appealed to the Board of Trustees for an increase in his pay rate in turn for increased revenues from building code violation convictions.
Code Enforcement Procecutor Robert Pierce said that since he began working on building code violation cases in November, "there's been a significant increase in the number of cases coming into the system."
"I have my hands around this thing," he said. "There were about 80 cases when we last spoke [in March], now there are 120. Now that we have the momentum, I want to keep it moving."
The village began cracking down on inspections of illegal and overcrowded dwellings last September, after an apartment building caught fire that was found to have no smoke detectors and multiple code violations.
In late 2009, the board appointed Assistant Village Manager Christopher Steers to lead the charge against landlords and tenants who were violating building codes. While Steers has been credited with making strides as the director of housing enforcement, .
Under current law, building inspectors can only inspect a building if a complaint has been filed against the owner, or if the building has three or more apartments.
In November 2010, Pierce was hired as a part-time contractual procecutor to bring code violation cases to village court.
While Pierce said that he's currently under contract to work 25 hours per month for the village, he proposed at the workshop that the village increase his hours and, consequently, his pay.
"I easily having been spending an average of 12 - 13 hours a week, and 30 minutes per case," Pierce said. In the last two months, he said he's brought in $20,000 for the village in code violation fines.
This year's budget allots $32,000 for Pierce's position, which works out to an hourly rate of $130.
"I expect to generate more fines than I'm getting paid," Pierce said. "Based on the current caseload, it would be $6,000 per month, double what it is now."
"The principle objective is cleaning up these dangerous apartments. The people who are breaking the law should pay for it," he said.
Last month, the village released a document detailing illegal housing cases, which Mayor Dennis Pilla called a "."
Village Attorney Tony Cereto said that the village would seek maximum fines for building code violations, in order to set a precedent.
"A year and a half ago, we didn't have a code enforcement system. We have that now," Cereto said. "We're going to be asking for the maximum fine. We're not going to settle. We want that message to get through."
"Let's do it; it's a no-brainer," Trustee Dan Brakewood said.
Budget workshops will continue through the end of April. The budget must be adopted by May 2.
1. We appointed a new code prosecutor, because of comments received from the Village Attorney & the Code Enforcement Director. 2. We appointed new judges because AGAIN comments from the Village Attorney and Code Director as well as members of our Police Dept. The last judges were not appointed by the BOT, only Mayor Pilla, so much for transparency or reaction to concerns & complaints. 3. In this budget cycle the major department that has come before the BOT & not receive a mandate to reduce spending was Code Enforcement. In fact we offered Mr. Steers more resources & all he asked for was half a clerk. 4. I have asked Mr. Pilla to spearhead a request for NYS Legislative approval for a third judge if we need it because of anticipated bottlenecks. He has not done anything in this regard so I went to George Latimer directly to get it going.
Clearly, the newly elected members of the BOT have heard the community & we making the changes so Village government will meet the expectations of the taxpayers. It's not just about fines, it's about all the pieces working together doing the job. If you listen to the discussions when we made these appointments you will hear the deficiencies as to why we made the changes.
I do understand the desire to set things right in this village. But let's be sure to hammer the people who actually precipitated and perpetuate the situation ... and that would be unscrupulous. amoral, non-compliant landlords. I would hope that the village is also conscious of the need resettlement assistance for those who are dislodged from their homes ... and that the process is both fair and unbiased ... and most importantly, humane and in tandem with our values of humanity and compassion. Remember: "There but for the grace of God ..."
Extra Police Service, Extra Fire Service, Extra Sanitation Services (including extra dumping fees to dump the extra garbage that the extra people generate), Extra Education Services (besides tremendous financial expenses, we can have a whole big discussion about how much class time students actually have in a school day at the High School because of the overcrowding), and what is ironic, Extra Expenses to catch the people who are creating the problem. Yet my basic question still remains, why aren't the perpertraitors of this assault on the community and all the law abiding taxpayers paying for the extra expenses they are inflicting? Let alone the punitive aspect.