After Mallia Indictment, Carlucci Passes Bill for Stronger Code Oversight

ALBANY, NY– After the Ramapo Buildings Inspector was arrested for falsifying and over charging for building permits, Senator David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Westchester) announced that the State Senate has passed his legislation to punish building inspection officials if they are guilty of any professional misconduct; currently State law does not allow for revocation of permitting powers even in these instances. Carlucci's bill, S1642, will allow the NY Secretary of State to have a process to revoke a code enforcement officer's certification for misconduct.

"We have unfortunately seen issues with buildings that haven't been properly inspected or even inspected at all. When these developments are allowed to move forward after substandard oversight, it creates huge problems.  There are safety risks for the users of the structure and dangerous conditions for our first responders. Giving the State the ability to punish these bad actors empowers the monitors on the ground to root out corruption and stop it when they see it.  This was a destructive scheme that will impact our community for years to come and we must not let that happen again," Carlucci stated. 

The Department of State issues code enforcement certifications for individuals who have completed training on the uniform code. This certification demonstrates that an individual is qualified to enforce the building and fire codes for local governments.

Although the Department of State issues the certifications, the Department only has the authority to revoke the certification if the official failed to complete the training. There was an incident in Rockland where a fire inspector was cited by the State Education Department for failing to note serious violations at several non-public schools during the course of an annual fire inspection.       

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