Building Dept. gearing up for new enforcement program

Port Chester Building Department employees meet with three members of the White Plains Code Enforcement Task Force in White Plains Tuesday.

“The Building Department is concerned with the safety of all residents of the village—even those who are overcrowded.”

—Acting Building
Inspector Frank Ruccolo

By Jananne Abel

The Port Chester Building Department is gearing up for an organized code enforcement program that will do more than just react to complaints. The idea is for code enforcement officers to work early mornings, evenings and weekends to observe possible violations involving life safety, property maintenance and sanitation and then follow up their observations with research.

In preparation for their work during non-business hours, the village’s three code enforcement officers met with three members of the renowned White Plains Code Enforcement Task Force for two hours this week to learn from their expertise. Also along for the training were Village Manager Christopher Russo, Assistant to the Village Manager Robert Lombardi, Acting Building Inspector Frank Ruccolo and Cynthia Martin, intermediate clerk in the Building Department.

“We need to make sure we are doing this with the utmost caution and training,” said Russo, “to learn the dos and don’t when you’re out there. You can’t be overly cautious when you’re out after dark.”

The code enforcement officers will be wearing identifying clothing which is currently on order. It includes summer and winter shirts with the code enforcement badge on them, navy blue hats and, most importantly, said Russo, matching jackets with reflective tape that reads “code enforcement” on the back like the police and Public Works Department employees wear.

“From the standpoint of the village, it’s risk management—their safety,” said Russo. “The best example is a police officer responding— they’re trained a certain way.”

Russo said he doesn’t yet have all the details of the program worked out but knows it can’t be done without more overtime. “To generate more activity will require more time, but there will be more attending revenue,” he said. “The idea is to get more results.”

There has been some resistance to working off hours, but Russo feels it’s necessary because “it’s the nature of the beast.” In the end he’s sure he’ll be able to work out a plan that will be satisfactory to the officers.

Russo said that when the program is totally formulated, he plans to send out a newsletter to residents before any enforcement begins. A newsletter notifying residents of the sanitation schedule has not been mailed out since 2003, he said.

The village board changed the process for sanitation violations from civil to criminal a while back, but it was never implemented, said Russo. “It just sat there and now we are making up the tickets that go with it.” He wants to get out a newsletter telling residents when they can put trash out and how much before any enforcement starts. “In fairness we owe the community to get out the information before implementing $250 to $500 violations,” he said. He hopes to have the newsletter out by the end of the month.

Brian Acciavatti has been a full-time code enforcement officer in Port Chester for 9 ½ years after having done code enforcement upstate before that.

Raphael Luyando

Raphael “Ralph” Luyando started with the village as a code enforcement officer in December 2006 after having been a police officer in New York City for a little more than 20 years.

He speaks Spanish which is a big plus for the village, according to Acting Building Inspector Ruccolo and according to Luyando himself.

He said of Tuesday’s orientation in White Plains: “Any seminar is useful, it’s what you get out of it. I was always taught the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.”

He said they went over safety issues and discussed minimal manning of two guys, no solo patrols.

How does he feel about working during non-business hours?

“We haven’t done it so it’s kind of hard to comment to see if it’s fruitful or fruitless,” said Luyando. “It may or may not. You have to be open-ended on it.”

He’s not so sure about the uniforms. He said it would have been nice to have input on what the uniforms would look like. “Once you see a white car that says ‘Village of Port Chester Code Enforcement,’ you know,” he said. “I thought the car would be enough, but I’m flexible.”

As far as switching over from being a police officer to a code enforcement officer, Luyando said: “I kind of figured enforcement is enforcement.”

Lawrence Chiulli

Lawrence Chiulli, who had previously owned a glass company and done construction in the private sector for 20 years, has been a code enforcement officer in Port Chester since November 2007.

He doesn’t speak Spanish fluently but understands it and can hold a minor conversation, he said. “I know when to duck and when to leave.”

Chiulli said he had a lot of knowledge in construction and was looking to get into civil service and was looking for something that wasn’t restricted to an office.

“Of all the things, this was the best suited for what I was looking for,” he said. He’s now a licensed code enforcement official, had to pass a civil service exam, then went to school and he said there is required continuing education of 24 hours per year to keep up with code changes.

Of the training in White Plains, he said: “Anything like that when you get input from other [municipalities] is always informative—it give you a little insight into how they do their program. It’s sometimes different, sometimes the same. You always learn something.”

He did say that “most of the stuff they did, we’re already doing.”

“Some stuff reinforces what you know,” he said, “but there could be a little thing and then you implement it during your work.”

He’s not sure about working odd hours.

“I’d have to see the program, how it’s designed,” he said, adding that “anything that’s going to benefit the residents of Port Chester I’m for. As long as it’s safe and productive, I have no problems with it.

He doesn’t mind the uniforms, saying that “it helps with identification.”

Chiulli said he chose to work in Port Chester because he thought it would be a challenge. Coming from the private sector, he feels he has a good work ethic and thought he’d be a good asset. “I thought I could help the living conditions in Port Chester. Since I don’t live in Port Chester, I look at things very objectively and fairly.”

“I love my job,” said Chiulli. “When you’re enforcing codes, it’s about making things safe. You’re also educating the public on what they need to do to make their house safe and that’s what this is about.”

“When I came into this,” said Chiulli, “I came into it to make a difference, not just to collect a paycheck. Anything that can be done to help us do this is a positive.”

Frank Ruccolo

Frank Ruccolo has been with the Building Department going on nine years, having come from Scarsdale where he was assistant building inspector. He has been acting building inspector in Port Chester since October 2007.

He said he heard some new points in White Plains but “we do the same thing as they do and they do the same thing as we are doing, responding to a lot of complaints and trying to enforce the regulations.”

“We have to do what we do legally because we have a pretty good conviction rate here in Port Chester and I don’t need any lawsuits from homeowners,” said Ruccolo. “We’re going to start pushing the envelope even more, so they’re going to push back. I want to make sure everything I do with code enforcement is 100% so we will be able to convict if there is a conviction. Once it gets to court, it’s out of the Building Department’s hands.”

He said it take s lot of time even for one violation, a lot of research.

The village is looking for a software package that would streamline their work to get notices out and keep track of complaints. “Now we are doing it the old-fashioned way with paper and pen,” he said. “We are trying to do the best we can with what we have and as quickly as we can.”

He said the employees are in agreement on most of the issues but “we’re trying to implement something different that was not always here. It’s going to take time to feel comfortable with it.”

“If it’s going to help the village,” he said, “It’s a plus.”

As far as going out odd hours, he said, “we’ll see what works, what doesn’t. It takes time. It’s baby steps at first to try to implement new programs and try to get the code compliance the village is looking for.”

“The Building Department is concerned with the safety of all residents of the village—even those who are overcrowded,” said Ruccolo. “They don’t know any better. These people come from Third World countries where they live in mud and paper shacks. Here they have a roof over their head, heat and hot water and they’re in paradise. They don’t know what they’re doing is overcrowding.”

He put some blame on the landlords. However, he added: “The economic times are so volatile that everyone is trying to do what they can to make ends meet for their families.”

“This is a good time to start implementation of these new procedures that we’re going to hopefully start with,” said Ruccolo. “I’m working with the guys to start it as soon as we can. I know everyone wants it done like yesterday.” However, he added: “It took a long time to get to this point. It will take some time to get back to some sort of normalcy. You just have to bear with us.”

This is part of the January 9, 2009 online edition of Port Chester Westmore News.

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