“DA gathering more information at Ramapo Building Department Photo/Steve Lieberman The Journal News
Rockland District Attorney’s Office corruption probers seized more records Friday from the building department, whose chief inspector, Anthony Mallia, already faces 188 charges accusing him of stealing $150,000 in taxpayer funds by undercharging certain builders for permits.
“This is a continuing investigation into the building department,” Exceutive Assistant District Attorney Richard Kennison Moran told The Journal News/lohud.com.
Moran, who oversees the special investigations unit for District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, said he couldn’t comment further.
The indictment alleges Mallia developed an elaborate scheme to steal taxpayer money rather than to ensure public safety and compliance, Zugibe said. His office is part of an anti-corruption task force along with U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI in White Plains.
At the same time, Mallia also is accused of overcharging the Moleston Fire District for a building permit by $75,000. The Moleston Fire District oversees the Hillcrest Fire Department and oversaw construction of a new multi-million dollar firehouse on Route 45.
Mallia, an employee since getting hired as a part-time in March 2008 at $24,127, has pleaded not guilty after being arrested Sept. 15. No trial date has been set and his next County Court appearance is scheduled for June 6 before Judge David Zuckerman n New City.
Maillia remains suspended but still gets his $169,618 annual salary as civil service law mandates he will continue to be paid while suspended, officials said.
An estimated 50 building department files are potentially involved in the case. The files contain permits, possible certificates of occupancy. A Journal News investigation found three of the developers allegedly given breaks on permit fees from Mallia were major donors to the campaign fund of St. Lawrence.
Under Mallia’s tenure as chief building inspector, allegations of a lack of enforcement led the New York Division of Building Standards and Codes to assign a monitor to oversee Ramapo’s building department. The division said it had determined the town and its building department had not been enforcing fire and zoning codes, allowing schools to operate without planning board approval and buildings to linger with violations.
The monitor, Erica Krieger, along with another in Spring Valley, were assigned after the state threatened to take control of those communities’ inspections following years of pressure by Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City, and later County Executive Ed Day.”
Read the complete Journal News story here.