The Town of North Hempstead is seeking to right the wrong of former town building inspectors illegally issuing certificates of occupancy by establishing a committee to find remedial solutions for affected homeowners.
“How is this my fault?” Roslyn Country Club resident Alex Roit asked the Town Board. “How was I supposed to know this?”
The committee is focused only on houses in the Roslyn Country Club, but council members argued that it should address all residents affected, not just a select few.
The advisory committee was established Tuesday night through a unanimous vote by the board despite clashes among board members about which residents should be involved.
In 2007, multiple town Building Department employees were arrested and later convicted after a 16-month corruption investigation. Many were arrested for bribery.
That year homeowners in the Roslyn Country Club, as well as many others throughout the town, were informed that their certificates of occupancy were invalid due to these department employees’ actions.
Roit said he purchased his home in 2005 without any knowledge about the illegal actions between his home’s builder and the town’s building inspector.
“This was a dream home to start and we loved the area,” Roit said.
A couple of years later, he said he received a letter stating that his home’s certificate of occupancy was granted in error and that its square footage was greater than permitted.
He said for 17 years, he has been in limbo without any remedy available to him.
Roit said his variances have been denied and that selling his house has been difficult. He said the only option is to spend $80,000 to buy back the additional square footage and remove portions of his house to meet the town code.
The Legacy Issue Resolution Committee is an advisory committee and would suggest solutions for the town board to consider. It consists of five members who would investigate the issue.
The committee members are Edward Butt, Dina de Giorgio, Bonnie Parente, Richard Bivone and Robyn Brattner.
The plan is for them to offer solutions by the end of January for the board to then approve or deny.
Supervisor Jennifer DeSena and Council Member Ed Scott described the committee as the first step.
Council Member Robert Troiano said the country club is also in his district and questioned whether the homes within his district were included in the remedial committee. Scott said the process is beginning in his district and criticized Troiano for not acting sooner.
“You were here as a council person through that time,” Scott said. “At any time did you say, ‘Oh my god let me see what houses were affected,’ because I’m sure there were houses that were affected in Westbury? If you decided – hold on, sir – if you decided that you didn’t want to do anything from 2004 or your term here as councilperson for your districts, that’s fine. I’m a different councilman. I am going to go to bat for my residents that got basically screwed over.”
Council Member Christine Liu countered Scott’s accusations by clarifying that the Roslyn Country Club was not in Troiano’s district until this year due to recent redistricting, therefore he wouldn’t have acted previously.
Troiano said it’s not a conversation about him or Scott but concerns equity for all town residents affected to be included. He called the committee’s focus only on the District 2 portion of the country club “bias.”
Town attorney Richard Nicolello called the limited area within the country club the “epicenter of this problem.”
Troiano said he took issue with the committee only focusing on the Roslyn Country Club, rather than addressing all the residents affected.
Councilman David Adhami said solutions the committee proposes could also apply to other homeowners affected. He also encouraged Troiano to establish his own.
But Troiano argued that resolutions proposed could apply to specific homes within the country club and not be applicable broadly.
The board instead opted to make the advisory committee for the entire country club, not just the District 2 portion, as originally proposed.
In other news, budget season is beginning for the Town of North Hempstead, which presented its 2025 tentative budget Tuesday night.
The tentative budget was filed Monday with the town clerk and provided to board members Tuesday night.
DeSena said the budget will keep tax rates at their current levels—therefore, it will not increase or cut them. She described it as a “freeze.”
Westbury, Carle Place resident Pete Gaffney suggested the board lower taxes by bolstering department revenues. He suggested ideas like establishing a moratorium on illegally developed housing that would generate revenue through homeowners filing the proper permits and increasing penalties.
A series of meetings will be held to discuss the budget over the next month. These include a work session on Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. and a hearing on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. On Oct. 29, a vote to finalize the budget can be taken.
