What's A Story, Morning Glory?

Following is a direct quote from the Municipal Code of the Village of Mineola :

70. "Story" shall mean the portion of a building which is between one floor level and the next higher floor level or the roof. If a mezzanine floor area exceeds one third (1/3) of the floor immediately below, it shall be deemed to be a story. A basement shall be deemed to be a story when its ceiling is six (6) or more feet above the average finished grade. A cellar shall not be deemed to be a story. An attic shall not be deemed to be a story, if unfinished and not used for human occupancy.  1

SO - if you've been following the shenanigans involving 217 Horton Highway, VOM's Building Department and Jack Martins, champion of same, you know there has been some debate as to what constitutes a "story."   You see, when the owner/architect/builder of 217 Horton Highway (John Cunha) applied for his construction permit, he sought to erect a 2 story, single family residence.  At least that's what he put in writing.  He went before the Architectural Review Board (what are their qualifications exactly?) and was approved for a 2 story, single family residence.  The design approved called for a gabled roof that would provide unfinished, non-habitable space that could be used for storage - as opposed to a 2 story single family house with a pitched roof that could also provide unfinished, non-habitable space that could be used for storage - or as opposed to a 2 story single family house with a flat roof that would have no attic but might provide a crawl space that could be used for storage.  The ARB did NOT approve a two and one-half story residence at 217 Horton Highway.

Let's repeat.  Mineola's Architectural Review Board DID NOT APPROVE a 2.5 story residence at 217 Horton Highway. 

Why then, did Building Superintendent/Parking Meter Attendant Daniel B. Whalen issue a Certificate of Occupancy for a 2.5 story residence when that isn't even what the owner applied for?  Why was the owner not required to apply for a variance?  The Code stipulates that single family residences can only be 2 stories high.  That's 2 liveable stories with either a flat roof or a pitched/gabled roof with an unfinished attic.  If Mr. Cunha, the owner/designer/builder of 217 Horton wanted two and a half-stories, he should have applied for it in his original permit request.  He then would have been required to not only go before the ARB, but the Board of Zoning Appeals as well.  But that's not what happened.  Is it?

Somehow, somewhere along the way, another 1/2 story appeared on that house.  You can't see it from the outside, so that means it's somewhere on the inside.  Now where do you suppose it might be?  Well since the "attic" has 16 windows and a sprinkler system and since Mr. Cunha had previously told people he intended to establish an office up there, it is safe for any reasonably intelligent human being to put 2 + 2 together to come up with 4.  That is, Mr. Cunha has finished off at least half of the attic space to make it "habitable" and thereby "taxable."  And the tax assessor's records have been updated to reflect the same.

Now it's not uncommon for people to finish their attics to create another bedroom, a study, a playroom, a gym - whatever.  But there are laws to follow and if you are going to take an unfinished attic and finish it off, you have to apply for a permit first and you have to submit plans.  But not Mr. Cunha.  He didn't have to submit plans with his original permit application for new construction, nor did he have to submit a permit application after the fact.  He just finished the space and his pal Danny B issued a Certificate of Occupancy for 2 1/2 stories.

But it gets better because when this was brought to the attention of Mayor Jack Martins, at TWO televised public meetings, his "honor" went into spin mode (as usual when it comes to the mechinations of the Building Department).  He tried to explain away that magic half-story by re-writing state and local building codes off the cuff.  According to Jack, unused, non-habitable space now constitutes a half story.  I'm sure Albany will be happy to hear that.  Not to mention Dan Whalen whose ass Jack is constantly covering.

Seriously people.  You voted this guy in.  Are you happy with yourselves?  Because what you elected is someone who thinks everybody else is a fool.  He believes nobody is as smart as he is.  He repeatedly insults your intelligence by twisting facts and trying to lay blame where it doesn't belong. 

Take the most recent case of the 13th Avenue residents who have been complaining about the noise emanating from the Verizon building.  These folks, using common sense, did the most logical thing any reasonable people would do.  They called MINEOLA's Building Department to complain.  But did they receive any assistance?  Not at all.  They were brushed off and told to contact Garden City's DOB.  Then when they exercised their right to raise the matter at a public meeting in December, Jack Martins complained that they should have come to him first.  W T F ????  How about this?  How about the Building Department staff does it's job by writing down the complaints and sending someone over to assess the situation while at the same time advising the mayor?  Instead, they did nothing and when the affected residents brought the matter public, Jack put the onus back on them.  Right where it didn't belong!

So THAT'S the story Morning Glories!  Non-habitable space now constitutes taxable living space.  Certain residents, like certain members of the Building Department enjoy "favored nation status."  And you dear taxpayers, enjoy the privilege of bending down to get reamed up your derrieres while having your faces slapped at the same time.  Relish the process!


1. Title III Planning, Building and Zoning Regulations; Chapter 27 Housing Code; Article 1 Residential Premises; Part I General Provisions; §27.7 Abbreviations and Definitions; C  Definitions.

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

It is said that "silence is golden."  In the case of the January 6, 2010 public meeting, the silence emanating from Mineola's Board of Trustees was deafening.  Not one of these elected officials had anything to say as Village resident Jesse Smith questioned Mayor Jack Martins yet again about the architectural albatross that now exists at 217 Horton Highway.  Even Deputy Mayor Larry Werther - notorious for his diarrhea of the mouth - was uncharacteristically silent.

So to what do we owe this dearth of dialogue on the part of our trustees?  Post-Christmas January blues? Sugar-induced comas?  Your basic, run-of-the-mill ennui?

Is it at all possible these men are starting, however slowly, to recognize the facts of the matter?  Maybe they are beginning to realize that if Jack is going to twist the truth like a pretzel, then it's better he bury himself alone without jumping into the grave with him.  Or perhaps that's giving them all too much credit.

It should be fairly obvious to anyone who was at that meeting or who has seen it on Channel 18 that Jack will do anything to defend the behaviour of his Building Superintendent, Daniel B. Whalen and that of the owner of 217 Horton Highway.  How else to justify Mr. Whalen's issuance of a CO to that property in the absence of properly installed leaders and gutters and a final survey?  If Jack is going to employ the same justification Attorney Spellman used when Danny B issued that illegal fence permit on Latham Road (i.e. it was a "mistake") that would then lead one to believe Mr. Whalen is not qualified for his job. 

And by what or whose authority did Whalen issue a CO for a 2 and 1/2 story house when the Architectural Review Board approved a 2 story house?  Martins' spin has been and continues to be that a completely empty, unliveable space constitutes half of a story, when as a real estate attorney he should (and no doubt does) know better.  A 2 story house consists of two liveable floors having either a flat roof, or a gabled roof with unfinished area such as a crawlspace or attic.  If there is now an additional half-story to that house, it means part of the attic has been finished and is liveable.  That is why Mr. Cunha's taxes have now gone up.  Until recently, the tax assessor's rolls showed a 2-story house.  Cunha was not taxed for the attic space because it was assumed to be unfinished, ergo unliveable.  But now his assessment report reflects an additional, taxable 1/2 story which is not what was called for in the original ARB approved plan.  And THAT friends, is what Mr. Smith is questioning.

Martins is trying to turn this whole thing around to make it sound as if Mr. Smith is claiming that the actual structure of the house has changed;  as if there's a mysterious 1/2 floor sticking out somewhere.  How did Martins put it?  "The house that was built is the house that was approved." (Um, NO.  Check the approved plans and then check the roof line and you'll see it doesn't match.  But let's not split hairs.)

Let's go over it again.  The ARB approved a house with 2 LIVEABLE FLOORS, an UNFINISHED BASEMENT and an UNFINISHED ATTIC.  Dan Whalen issued a CO for a house that has 2 and 1/2 floors of liveable space (1) without requiring an additional permit for a revision of plans (2) despite the absence of state-mandated leaders and gutters, and (3) absent a final survey.  Such actions would lead most reasonable people to conclude that Mr. Whalen is either incompetent and needs to go back to collecting coins from parking meters, or something else is going on.

The silence was even more obvious the second time Mr. Smith took to the podium to discuss the damage done to his property when a lightning strike in October splintered Mr. Cunha's chimney, sending bricks flying in all directions including into Mr. Smith's car.  The car that was parked in HIS driveway.  The same driveway that Cunha cut into without any prior notice.

Each of the trustees in turn looked at the pictures Mr. Smith provided and NOT ONE of these sheep made a peep.  NOT ONE had the courage - let alone the basic common courtesy - to extend any sympathy to this taxpayer for his aggravation and financial loss.  And let's not even consider what might have happened to either Mr. Smith or his wife if one of them managed to be out there when this "Act of God" occurred.

Instead, one by one in their zombie-like states, they shuffled through the photographs and passed them on.  And the only thing our illustrious mayor did was to confirm with Mr. Smith that Cunha had been advised by his masoner to install a clay chimney cap and/or a lightning rod (neither of which this professional architect has done).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you know sheep are among the stupidest animals on earth?  They will follow their flock leader straight off a cliff - or straight to their slaughter.  Sheep also have no concept of a moral code.  Of course, that can be attributed to their level of evolution.  What excuse do the ruminants sitting on Mineola's Board of Trustees have to offer?

Brain Power + Ambition = Good Customer Service

But if you've been keeping up with the times in Mineola you know that both Brain Power and Ambition are in very short supply at the Building Department.  Ergo, customer service is virtually non-existent.  People have been complaining about the personality issues there for years but the Mayor takes no notice.

If you attended the December 16th public meeting or watched it on Channel 18, you learned that a number of residents have complained to Mineola's Building Department with regard to noise coming from the Verizon building on the border of Mineola and Garden City.  The offending structure is in Garden City's jurisdiction so our Building Department has no authority over the property in question.  However, when residents call  Dan Whalen's office to complain about an issue such as this, the stock answer of  "It's not in Mineola so we can't do anything about it"  is completely unacceptable.  The appropriate answer is "While that property is not in Mineola's jurisdiction, we will send an inspector over.  He can then make a report to the Mayor and the Board of Trustees for their consideration."

Danny B earns over $100K a year.  His gal-pal/secretary's earnings are in the $40K range.  The village residents do not pay taxes to get blown off by the very employees whose salaries they pay. 

All it takes to keep your customers happy is a little bit of professionalism, the ability to think outside the box and a desire to actually earn your keep (it's called a "work ethic").  It's time for the Mayor to stop making excuses for the obnoxious, cavalier behavior of Mr. Whalen and his staff.  Personnel changes are long overdue and there's no better time than the start of a New Year.

IT'S  TIME  TO  PUT  THE  COUNTRY  CLUB  OUT  OF  BUSINESS  !!!!

A HORSE IS A HORSE OF COURSE ~ But What is a Building Superintendent?

Interesting question, that.

The Village of Mineola's job description for the position of Superintendent of Buildings calls for:

"(1) a High School graduate and eight years of experience in planning and construction of buildings, including five years of progressively more responsible experience in all phases of building inspection work, at least three years of which must have been in a supervisory capacity;
OR
(2) completion of at least two years of college, with courses in engineering and six years of experience as described in (1)."

That seems fairly straightforward.  So let's see.  Who would plan and

construct buildings?  An architect. 

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

A structural engineer.  A licensed general contractor.  A carpenter perhaps.  Maybe even a parking meter attendant.

Whoa!  Wait a minute Mr. Postman !!!  Did you read that right?  A parking meter attendant?  Why would anybody hire a parking meter attendant to be a Building Superintendent?  That's as crazy as promoting a former carpenter from the Nassau County Correctional Center to be Manager of a Hempstead town cemetary.  And we know how that turned out:

 ( http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cemetery-worker-suspended-for-blunder-1.1603789 ) 

OK, so you can expect that kind of tomfoolery from the likes of  Uniondale.  After all, they're just a lowly hamlet, and we know how THOSE places are run what with all the cronyism, the corruption, and the political favoritism that is de rigeur.  But such falderol doesn't go down in an Incorporated Village like Mineola.  Especially with someone like Jack Martins at the helm.  No siree Bob!  Why he's the paradigm of integrity.  He would never put the Village at risk by allowing someone with a questionable pedigree to man the helm of Mineola's Building Department.

Would he?

Let's take a gander at Daniel B. Whalen's employment history with the Nassau County Department of Civil Service.  He started as a seasonal park worker in June 1994 at $10 per hour.  He continued along this career path until April 15, 1998 when he took the position of part-time parking meter attendant with the Village of New Hyde Park.  The pay was better - $17.68 an hour - but maybe it wasn't good enough because he resigned his position on August 20th that year.

Now you may be wondering - how could he support a family on a part-time salary like that?  According to urban legend, Mr. Whalen had an interest in a bar - or two (as in drinking establishments).  So maybe civil service was a way for him to earn some steady scratch.  Who knows?  But he was climbing that career ladder because six months after he left New Hyde Park, Whalen was hired by the Village of Westbury as a bonafide, full-time Complaint Investigator at $32,500 yearly.  Congrats Dan!  Momma's got a brand new bag!

Here's the catch.  The CI post was a competitive position, and Whalen was hired on a provisional basis meaning he had to pass the Civil Service exam within nine months of his hire date.  Clarification:  he not only had to pass, but he had to obtain "reachable" status.  In other words, he had to score high enough to be among those at the top of the list in order to be considered for the limited number of jobs.  But he didn't.  The Village of Westbury was thus required by law to terminate his provisional employment as a Complaint Investigator.

So what did the Trustees of the Village of Westbury do?

Effective November 15, 1999 they promoted Dan Whalen to Building Superintendent - an EXEMPT position requiring NO TESTING - at a salary rate of $49,000 per year!  That's a 50% salary hike for someone who couldn't even qualify to be a Complaint Investigator!

Were I a resident of the Village of Westbury, I'd be mighty pissed off.  But it seems those good people have been doing the Happy Dance since 2002 because as of that September, DW became Mineola's problem.  A $100,000 a year problem by now.

That's right friends.  When he left Westbury, Whalen's salary was up to $67,000 per annum.  When he joined VOM in September 2002, it was at an hourly rate of $43.13 which works out to $78,496.60.  That's more than a 17% pay increase in one fell swoop.  As of June 2008 his hourly pay rate was $54.70 for an annual salary of $99,553.14.  Just in case anybody's counting, that works out to nearly a 4% annual increase every year.  No civil service test required.  No customer service skills required.  Sound judgement not required.  The ability to ascertain where to draw the line in terms of personal relationships with subordinates? Not required.

So what are the taxpayers getting for their money?  Well, over the years a number of complaints have been filed with the employees' union against Mr. Whalen.  He has issued permits for non-conforming structures in violation of both the Village Code and NYS code.  He has allowed a certain property owner to take years to construct a house without requiring a single permit extension.  He issued that same owner a final Certificate of Occupancy despite the fact that there are no leaders, gutters or downspouts on the house - another violation of NYS law.  Nor had a final survey on the property been done at the time as is also required by law. 

He allowed another already non-conforming house to be expanded without requiring the owners to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals so the public could comment on the proposed construction.  Now this matter has gone to court.  And there are so many other examples.

In the interest of full disclosure, Whalen received certification as a NYS Code Enforcement Officer on August 31, 1998.  So he's got book learnin', which is a plus.  But the job description calls for PRACTICAL CONSTRUCTION  EXPERIENCE. 

As in: does he know the face end of a hammer from the claw end?

Prior to being appointed as Westbury's building superintendent, had he ever installed or repaired plumbing other than plunging the toilet in his own house?  Had he ever overseen or otherwise participated in a concrete pour or the shoring up of a foundation?  What prior supervisory experience did he have in the construction field?  (Looking over your bartender's shoulder to ensure he's not being too generous with the whiskey in the highballs doesn't count!)  What does his college transcript show?  Did he take any engineering courses?

Here's an experiment for you.  Go to the Village of Mineola and submit a request under the Freedom of Information Law to review Dan Whalen's Curriculum Vitae or job application.  See what response you get.  He's a civil servant paid with taxpayer dollars, but according to Mineola's Board of Trustees the taxpayers don't have a right to review his qualifications. "Unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" is what they'll tell you - even though he's a public servant and the courts have ruled time and again that public servants are not entitled to the same level of personal privacy as those who work in the private sector.  The Committee on Open Government has offered opinion after opinion about the right of the public to have access to the employment history and job credentials of their employees.  But Jack Martins doesn't give a rat's ass.  He's hell bent on protecting Dan Whalen despite the complaints he's heard from village residents, contractors and Whalen's fellow employees.

And that says it all.

So, getting back to the original question:  What is a Building Superintendent?  Go to your Webster's to look it up.  But DON'T expect to see Daniel B. Whalen's picture next to that definition.

KNOCKING BOOTS AT THE WORKPLACE

Unless you've been living on a Tibetan mountaintop for the past two weeks, you've probably heard at least something about the work-place sex scandal surrounding ESPN broadcaster/former Mets manager Steve Phillips and his apparently consensual partner, Brooke Hundley.  Both have recently received their walking papers from their employer.

In a statement to the NY Post, an ESPN executive acknowledged that the company does not currently have a written policy against workplace romances but " . . .clearly when those relationships do occur, they can present conflicts. And when those relationships present a conflict or potential conflict, we'll take appropriate action."  (See http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/eye_on_the_ball_ynTOHDfvJNuJ36ORy7mpJJ )

Sounds like they've got it right, even if they have closed the barn door after the horses have escaped.  But at least they've done something, which is more than our mayor Jack Martins has done about a situation he has known about for years:  the relationship between Mineola's Building Superintendent and one of his secretaries.

Office romances are common and many people meet their significant others through work.  But it becomes extremely problematic when a relationship occurs between a supervisor and his subordinate; never more so than in a municipal setting.  The opportunities for abuse are rife and that is why both the federal government and our county government discourages it.

You have to be a complete idiot to not see where such a relationship can lead:  workplace lovers covering up each others mistakes.  Raises and bonuses being given out based not on the merits of a person's office performance, but on their performance between the sheets.  And of course, there is always the potential post-breakup sexual harassment lawsuit.  Thus it behooves every employer - but most especially municipalities - to have a strict conflict of interest policy in place and to enforce it.

The Village of Mineola does address conflict of interest issues in Chapter 4 of the code and this has been brought to the Mayor's attention.  The mayor received several complaints about Dan Whalen's relationship with Karen Calabro, but nobody ever said anything publicly.  People wanted to give him the chance to do the right thing by transferring her or firing him, but he never did.  Ultimately, Mayor Martins was questioned directly at the public sessions as to whether he had ever received complaints about ANY relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate. (NO names were mentioned at the time.)  He absolutely lied, right on TV, to all his constituents by saying he had not.  Well Jack was caught with his pants down and at a subsequent meeting he was reprimanded very loudly and vehemently by a taxpayer who had met with him privately years prior to complain about the relationship.  Soon after this very public spanking the meetings were yanked off the air for six months until the board could figure out a way to try to keep the lid on things.

In shutting down the Channel 18 broadcasts, Martins expressed concern that village employees were being slandered on TV.  Well in order for something to be slander it has to be untrue.  The fact of the matter is that these two have been involved in a relationship for several years.  They go out on vacation at the same time.  They work out at the same gym.  She spends weekends at his house.  Now would this be a problem if they worked in different departments?  Not at all.  But she reports to him.  And it has created problems within Village Hall for years.  Problems that are beginning to surface more and more, and ultimately the taxpayers - we who subsidize the salaries of Whalen, Calabro AND the mayor - will be paying for it in spades.

Payback's a bitch.