A Record of Dysfunction
A 2014 audit by the New York State Office of the State Comptroller found significant deficiencies in how the Mount Vernon Department of Buildings managed fees and fines, including weak oversight of permit collections and a lack of internal controls. The audit found that the department processed roughly 3,150 permits and collected about $881,000 in fees during the audit period, yet lacked the systems to verify that all revenue was properly accounted for.
By 2018, the New York State Senate had taken notice. A state Senate study that year listed Mount Vernon’s Building Department as one of the worst in the state, a damning designation that city officials would later have to publicly acknowledge.
The problems that had been quietly documented in government reports were, by the early 2020s, erupting into public view. Residents described a gauntlet of bureaucracy. Homeowners reported waiting six months to two years just to get a permit, and another year or two to close one out. Others described losing paperwork, losing checks and money orders, and being hit with violations for minor or trivial matters. One resident filed a federal complaint alleging that a building department employee asked him to pay fines in cash and that his property was subjected to harassment including up to 30 inspector visits, some on evenings and holidays.
“If you know the right people, your issues are expedited,” said Matthew Fecteau, an information operations officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, who described the experience as his “living hell.” The city has denied his allegations in court.
A Change.org petition calling for new staff captured the frustration of many: “The home owners, contractors and investors of Mount Vernon are being bullied, mislead, stagnated, losing money and time.”
The Mayor Calls In The State
In August 2023, the Patterson-Howard administration formally called in the New York State Department of State’s Division of Building Standards and Codes to conduct a review of the department’s internal operations. The mayor acknowledged receiving “concerns and complaints” about how the department operates and said that chronic understaffing over the previous decade, outdated codes, and antiquated procedures had produced a backlog of 800 permit applications.
City Communications Director Tim Allen, speaking publicly about the state’s subsequent intervention in 2024, confirmed what many already suspected: a 2018 New York State Senate study had listed Mount Vernon’s Building Department as one of the state’s worst.
The State Steps In
The April 2024 report from the state’s review was blunt. It found backlogged permits, chronic understaffing, outdated city codes, and a failure to conduct timely inspections, including a failure since 2009 to conduct required annual inspections of places of public assembly.
In June 2024, the state escalated. A sternly worded letter from John Addario, Director of Building Standards and Codes for the New York State Department of State, warned Mount Vernon that it “requires that the City give this letter full and immediate attention.” Failure to show measurable progress by mid-August, the letter warned, could lead the state to take over the department entirely, potentially transferring enforcement authority to Westchester County.
The prospect was not hypothetical. In 2021, the state took control of building code enforcement in the village of Spring Valley and handed it to Rockland County, an arrangement that, years later, still shows no end in sight.
Neither outcome materialized in Mount Vernon. The state did not take over, and the city did not demonstrate the kind of compliance the letter demanded. Nearly two years on, residents report that little to nothing has visibly changed. The backlog, the delays, and the dysfunction that prompted the state’s intervention remain part of daily life for homeowners, contractors, and business owners trying to navigate the department.
Now It’s Your Turn
The state came in, issued its warnings, and left without a takeover. Nearly two years later, the department looks much the same as it did before any of it happened.
If you have dealt with the Mount Vernon Department of Buildings, whether as a homeowner, contractor, tenant, or business owner, this survey is your chance to put it on the record. Official reports and state letters have their place, but resident feedback creates a paper trail that is harder to ignore and harder to spin.
The department has a long way to go. Add your voice.
Take the Department of Buildings Customer Satisfaction Survey here.