03/14/11 No Wonder This Rag Is Called The Westmore Snooze: Former Westmore News Reporter Nik Bonopartis Has Filed Another Report About The Latest Building Department Police Raid And Richard Abel Is Still Asleep At The Switch

Photo: Once Again Westmore News Publisher Richard "My Daddy Gave Ne This Newspaper After He Forgot To Pay Over 100 Tax Bills" Abel Is In A Self Induced Coma.

Ace Nik Bonopartis Files One Breaking Port Chester News Story After Another At The New AOL / Patch News Website.

Staffing Changes Pending for Building Department as Authorities Review Thousands of Records

Of some 3,000 building permits issued over a decade, more than 1,000 are incomplete, creating a major time-sink for investigators.

By Nik Bonopartis - AOL / Port Chester Patch

Staffing changes and new leadership are in store for the building department as police and prosecutors dig through "thousands" of records that span more than a decade, officials said Monday.

For all intents and purposes, the building department remains frozen in time after police detectives installed new locks on the beleaguered office on Friday. The office is physically off-limits to anyone except investigators from the Port Chester Police Department and the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, as authorities look to preserve records and evidence.

An investigation into corruption at the building department began on April 29 of last year, when police closed the office for the first time and carted away boxes of records. Some employees were sent home Friday after police returned to lock the office down, but the department's clerical staff has been moved and will remain available to take applications and answer questions, Mayor Dennis Pilla said.

Police have remained mum of the details of the investigation, but former Building Inspector Frank Ruccolo was suspended in the aftermath, and officials say police have been digging through thousands of individual paper records that span a decade, when Leonard Cusumano – Ruccolo's predecessor – helmed the department.

When maintenance worker Daniel DeLisa was fired in February for allegedly outsourcing his $5,400-a-year cleaning job, DeLisa told authorities the late Cusumano gave his blessing to outsource the job a decade ago. Similar stories abound in the village.

One major time-sink for investigators is the sheer number of records in disorganized paper files. Those records pre-date recent modernization and digitization efforts at village hall, and Pilla said investigators are working through a cache of 3,000 building permits.

Of those permit files, 1,000 were never closed, meaning current staffers don't know what happened with those cases.

The process involves "reinspecting all of the suspicious-looking inspections from the past, to make sure that in the present tense there are no violations," Pilla said. "There are thousands of records that are abnormal. And the people of Port Chester need to understand that's going to take time."

While Pilla said potential criminal charges would come "not soon enough," he said the investigation's scope has expanded beyond the records at village hall.

Police have not discussed details, but a source familiar with the investigation said authorities are looking at the bank statements, property assets and financial records of suspected employees. The source pointed to one former employee who owns a home worth almost $1 million and likely could not have financed the home with official, reported income.

Sources say those patterns have increasingly become a focus of several concurrent criminal investigations – including the building department case and the parking meter theft probe.

In the meantime, Port Chester's leaders are exploring several options for the future of the building department. Pilla said staffers are exploring the possibility of combining building department operations with a nearby municipality, while Village Manager Christopher Russo interviews civil service candidates for the building inspector role. Russo will present a list of candidates to the board "very shortly," possibly at the next public board meeting.

Check back with Port Chester Patch for updates on the building department investigation.

HERE IS NIK'S PREVIOUS BREAKING NEWS STORY FROM EARLIER TODAY:

03/14/11 Where's The Westmore News? Here Is Another Port Chester Patch Breaking News Alert

BREAKING NEWS

TWO THUMBS UP FOR THE PORT CHESTER PATCH !!!! FORMER WESTMORE NEWS REPORTER NIK BONOPARTIS HAS ONCE AGAIN SCOOPED HIS OLD BOSS RICHARD "MY DADDY GOT ME THIS NEWSPAPER BY FORGETTING TO PAY OVER 100 PROPERTY TAX BILLS" ABEL . GOVERNMENT Police Shutter Building Department Again; Employees Sent Home Ten months after launching an investigation into corruption at Port Chester's building department, police have shut the office down again. By Nik Bonopartis | Mar 14, 2011

In a sign that a 10-month corruption investigation may be coming to a close, Port Chester police shuttered the building department at village hall on Friday, freezing operations and sending employees home. Details remain few. Port Chester police Lt. James Ladeairous confirmed detectives closed the office on Friday, saying the office is physically off-limits pending action by the police and village government. Mayor Dennis Pilla also confirmed the lock-down. "This is yet another step in the journey of rooting out corruption in Port Chester," he wrote in reply to a query from Patch......

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12/17/07 - Look For The Video - Port Chester Round Up Will Show The Port Chester Building Department In Action Today On Putnam Avenue

Reality Television Comes To Port Chester. A Documentary About How The Port Chester Building Department Is Managed And Operates.

The Port Chester Building Department Is Going To Execute A Warrant On Putnam Avenue Today And The Homeowner Has Given Port Chester Roundup Permission To Be There With Our

Video Cameras Documenting Everything.

Did ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA Wrongfully Issue The Search Warrant On This Two Family House?

Is There Really Probable Cause For ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA To Approve This Home Invasion?

Was ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA misled By The Port Chester Building Department?

Is this An Illegal Search That Approved By ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA That Will Cause Port Chester To Suffer Another Expensive Civil Rights Lawsuit?

Is This Retired And Disabled Port Chester Homeowner being punished for speaking out about the Port Chester Police Department and The Port Chester Building Department?

Is It True That A Port Chester Police Officer Initiated The Complaint Against The Retired And Disabled Homeowner?

Why Hasn't Port Chester Manager Bill Williams Not Answered The Port Chester Homeowners Certified Letter?

Is It True That This Retired And Disabled Home Owner's House Has Been Inspected By The Port Chester Building Department Six Different Times And Each And Every time The Building Department Complaint Has Been Found To Be Unsubstantiated?

Is It True That The Last Time The Building Department Filed A Complaint About The Retired And Disabled Homeowner He Had To Hire Judge Collangelo To Protect To Get The False Building Department Complaint Withdrawn?

Is The Building Department Wasting It's Time On A Vendetta, Instead Of Closing Down Illegal Apartments In Port Chester?

What Dose Mayor Dennis Pilla Think Of How Port Chester Village Manager Bill Williams Is Managing The Building Department?

Is Port Chester Village Manager Bill Williams Properly Managing The Port Chester Building Department?

Look For The Video Here And On YouTube.

Then Decide If Port Chester Village Manager Bill Williams Is Doing A Good Job Of Managing The Building Department.

UPDATE:

We Have The Video And It Is Explosive.
The Building Department Blames
The Port Chester Police Department.

We will release the video soon.

The story turned out to be bigger than we thought.

A building department employee makes several statements about the Port Chester Police Department on the video.

First Three police officers and a building department employee raid a Hispanic home owner's two family house with ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA's unjustified warrant.

The warrant is only to search the basement for an illegal apartment. There is no illegal apartment. The three officers and the building inspector go into other areas and harass and threaten legal tenants who have a lease for the three bedroom apartment.

The building inspector returns on the next business day and tells the Hispanic homeowner that he has a warrant and that he has to let him search the upstairs and attic or the Hispanic homeowner will be arrested.

Out of fear the Hispanic homeowner of submits to the warrant and allows the building inspector to search for an illegal apartment in the upper level and attic of the house.

Once again there is no illegal apartment.

Latter the Hispanic homeowner learns that the warrant only gives the building inspector the right to search the basement of the home.

THE HISPANIC HOMEOWNER COMPLAINS TO THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE THAT HE HAS BEEN INSPECTED SIX DIFFERENT TIMES AND EACH AND EVERY TIME THERE WAS NO ILLEGAL APARTMENT.

THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE TELLS THE HOMEOWNER,"YOU JUST DON"T GET IT. DO YOU. YOU THINK IT'S YOUR NEIGHBORS COMPLAINING, BUT IT IS THE POLICE...."

IT'S ALL ON VIDEO

The building inspector goes on to explain that the police don't like the homeowner and that the police got a warrant by telling ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA about being in the basement on a burglary call and seeing a possible illegal apartment.

What the Police neglected to tell ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA is that they were in the basement 18 months ago, back in July of 2006.

What the Police also neglected to tell ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA is that the homeowner is a strong critic of Port Chester tax increases and has repeatedly spoke out about the Port Chester Police Department hiring any new officers.

Further, the police neglected to tell ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA that this warrant to search for an non-existent illegal apartment was executed one business day before the Port Chester Chief of Police went before the Port Chester Board Of Trustees to ask to hire three more Port Chester Police Officers.

One of the New Police Positions was unfunded and not in the current Port Chester budget.

This illegal search approved by ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA was designed to illegally deny a Port Chester Police Department critic his first amendment right of free speech.

Port Chester Justice Joseph Vita would never have approved this illegal warrant, but the vindictive Port Chester Police Department was able to sucker the inexperienced ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA into signing the warrant designed to deny a Port Chester Hispanic his first amendment right to free speech.

The irresponsible ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA is going to bring the United States Justice Department back to Port Chester, for allowing the Port Chester Police Department to use his bogus warrant to deny a Hispanic police department critic his first amendment right to free speech.

Maybe ACTING VILLAGE JUSTICE JOSE "WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT" CASTEÑEDA should read about the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

12/13/07 - Was 125 Poningo Up To Code? - Were all of the smoke detectors and alarms funtioning properly?

Headline:

Eight hospitalized, several rescued after Christmas tree sparks Port Chester blaze

QUOTE:

“People were yelling to get out. I ran and told my dad and we got out.”

STORY:

A three-alarm fire sparked by a burning Christmas tree last night trapped several residents and sent eight people, including a baby, to hospitals, officials said.

The fire broke out shortly before 6:40 p.m. at 125 Poningo St. in Apartment A6, at the back of the four-story brick building, said Fire Chief Charles Nielson.

Village firefighters rescued residents trapped by intense smoke on the third floor.

Though the fire was quickly brought under control, eight people suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to hospitals, Nielson said. One was a firefighter, who was taken to a hospital for burns to his knees....

via The Journal News

Full story: The Journal News

NO WHERE IN THE STORY DOES ANY ONE REPORT BEING WARNED BY A SMOKE ALARM !!!!!

"I tried to get the extinguisher to try to put it out," Peterson said. "But I was so nervous I couldn't make it work."

Peterson ran out of the apartment and down the hallway to find another extinguisher.

...."I started yelling up and down the hall, 'There's a fire! ... Everyone get out!' And I was banging on doors," he said. "I was banging and screaming and I tried, I tried to get those people out....

...A man came out into the hallway. Peterson told him to call 911. The men then agreed that Peterson would alert the people on the second floor, while the other man should run up and tell those on the third floor....

....Jose Nigron, the building supervisor, said he was working just before the fire started.

"I was in the basement and I hear 'boom!'" he said.

Someone told him to call 911, which he did. He then went outisde and saw two people screaming at a third-floor window, overcome by blinding smoke that made it impossible to find the fire escape.....

....Francisco Gudino, 18, was on the third floor with his family in their apartment at the front of the building.

"I just heard screaming," he said. "People were yelling to get out. I ran and told my dad and we got out."

There wasn't too much smoke in the hallway, he said, but at least a dozen people were running through the hallway along with the Gudinos trying to get out. He said he heard that people were trapped in the back portion of the third floor and that there was smoke blocking the stairs to get out.

"I was just so worried about my family getting out," he said of his parents, younger brother and sister. "I just tried to keep track of where they were. We ran out a back stairway."....

It sounds like precious minutes were wasted.

There should have been a fire alarm pull station next to the hallway fire extinguisher.

Instead of residents telling each other to call 911. They should have used the fire alarm pull station to immediately call the Port Chester Fire Department.

No Port Chester Building Department Personnel Went To The Hospital, Because Of This Fire.

However, A Port Chester Fire Fighter Went To The Hospital With Burns To His Knees.

It Is Crazy That The Port Chester Building Department Conducts Fire Inspections In Port Chester.

LET THE PORT CHESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT DO THE FIRE INSPECTIONS IN PORT CHESTER.