Office of Buildings & Codes – One Year Later

Exactly one year ago today, we fulfilled an order by New York State Department Of State (NYSDOS) to assume all functions and responsibilities of the Spring Valley Building Department, launching our Office of Buildings and Codes (OBC).

We are working diligently to correct decades of mismanagement and neglect of the New York State Uniform Code in a village best described as ground-zero for illegal housing problems and remind everyone this is not something that can, nor will, be fixed overnight.

Since launching we have conducted 844 property inspections that were all discovered to have multiple violations except for one – a firehouse. In fact, we issued nearly 7,500 violations in those inspections and levied a quarter of a million dollars in fines. To put this in further perspective, OBC is discovering an average of 10 violations per property, 5x more than other municipalities which discover an average of one or two per property.

Challenges detailed by Director Markunas include:

• Creating an administrative court
• Building an interim record-keeping system
• Developing internal processes for issuing violation notices
• Recreating a new property master list
• Replacing contracted Spring Valley building and fire inspectors

Despite all the hurdles, we’re on track to complete 3-years’ worth of inspections in 2 years – a year ahead of schedule.

NYSDOS has not detailed what specific circumstances control of the Building Department will be returned to Spring Valley, but I can tell you those conversations have begun between NYSDOS and the Village.

In the last year so many people have expressed that they want this administration to do more; expand into other municipalities. Not only do we not have that authority, but it would be a massive undertaking and indicative of why Building and Fire code enforcement is one of the focuses of local municipalities.

With everything that we’ve encountered in this village, I can tell you we’ve dodge countless bullets. If this doesn’t change at the local level, it’s only a matter of time before we see another tragedy like the Evergreen Court fire.

Illegal housing is becoming a major problem and in this village it’s at near-crisis level, but code enforcement is a temporary solution and does not solve the true cause of this issue. It is up to those we elect to local office to make sure development is happening properly, responsibly, and safely. Allowing landlords to get by without building permits and Certificates of Occupancy or building at substandard levels places people at risk.

I remind everyone at home that this problem underscores exactly why local elections matter.

This County has about 200,000 active registered voters. While 75% of those voters turned out for the 2020 presidential election only about 25% voted in 2021 local races for town supervisors, mayors, trustees, and court justices.

Voting for our nation’s leader certainly has value but voting for the officials making decisions that directly affect your daily life and wellbeing has even more. These are the races, and the people, making decisions that impact your homes, your families, your schools, and your taxes.

If you don’t like the choices being made on behalf of your community, get out and vote for candidates who will get it done right.

Any building and fire code complaints in the Village of Spring Valley can be submitted to OBC at 845-364-3700 or by email to [email protected]