Officials call for audit or state review of Hempstead Town Building Dept.

Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen and state Sen. John Brooks said Monday they  would call for a New York State review of alleged corruption and a lack of transparency in the town building department if the town board does not approve a proposed audit.

The board is to vote Tuesday on awarding a $330,000 audit contract to Ernst & Young, a professional services company with a Manhattan office. In February, the Republican-controlled town board voted 5-1 to table a similar measure, despite the objections of Gillen, a Democrat.

"Residents deserve total transparency in our building department," Gillen said at a Monday news conference. "What is the town council so worried about? What do they not want you to see?"

Brooks (D-Seaford) said he would "prefer to see this resolved locally," but will call for the state to intervene if the board does not approve the audit.

That intervention might take the form of State Senate committee hearings, the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the town agency, or a review by the state comptroller or attorney general, Brooks said.

 Town Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney, who leads the board's Republican majority, said she is “carefully weighing a variety of options to improve operations” in the department.

Building department Commissioner John Rottkamp did not respond to a request for comment.

The department's response to property damage caused by superstorm Sandy in 2012 should be a focus of the audit or state review, Gillen and Brooks said. After the storm, the department classified many houses in the town as substantially damaged, a designation requiring residents to carry out costly repairs, including elevating their homes in some cases.

But many homeowners were unaware of the designations until years later when they sought unrelated building permits, the officials said.

Gillen also said her office had received "countless" complaints about alleged corruption in the department, such as agency officials expediting work permits and overlooking code violations for friends and family.

Ernst & Young was not the low bidder on the contract, Tuesday's town board resolution shows. Another bidder, Matrix, of Mountain View, California., proposed a $117,600 fee. The board tabled the proposed auditor contract in February because the town did not plan to award it to the lowest bidder, board members said at the time.

Gillen said Monday a procurement evaluation committee that included representatives of the town board and the building department recommended the contract go to Ernst & Young because the commitee felt the company's audit would be "more thorough and more complete."