Saving Lives Is All That Matters, Rockland Legislators Support Spring Valley Department Takeover

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐲 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧, 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐲𝐞𝐫, 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐲, 𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐠 𝐉𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐢, 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐌𝐜𝐆𝐨𝐰a𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐲

“On Nov. 16, 2021, the State of New York took the unprecedented step of ordering Rockland County to assume administration and enforcement of the State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Codes in the Village of Spring Valley. This decision came after years of pleading from government officials, fire department leaders, community groups, and many others who had long witnessed the disregard for safety that prevailed in the village’s enforcement of fire and building codes.

The question that many of these advocates, including members of the current legislative minority, asked over and over was, ‘Do we need to wait for someone to die before anything is done?’ Tragically, the answer to that question was ‘Yes.’ We had to wait until a horrific fire took the lives of volunteer Firefighter Jared Lloyd and a resident at the Evergreen Court Home in March of 2021 before the State finally decided enough was enough in a village with an already troubled past. As a reminder, multiple officials working for the village have been arrested on corruption and bribery charges in addition to the two village officials arrested for allegedly falsifying records in connection with the Evergreen Court Home fire.

We could go on and on with finger pointing and ‘we told you so’ admonishments, but that will neither bring back the dead nor prevent future lives from being lost due to recklessness and dereliction of duty. What matters now is ensuring that the one opportunity to actually make impactful and lifesaving changes that has been placed in front of us now does not get squandered. Lives have already been lost and thousands of others are at stake. We must seize this opportunity and make sure that things are done right.

We were all advocates for the 2015 adopting of the Rockland County Codes Initiative created by our County Executive Ed Day. This was one of the first real steps taken in the fight to protect our most vulnerable citizens from the potentially deadly consequences of ignoring fire and building code enforcement. The program was designed to use the broad powers under the County Sanitary Code to step in when local municipalities failed to act.

Some of us were sitting legislators at the time the Codes Initiative was announced and stood proudly by our County Executive when he announced that, ‘The health and safety of all residents in Rockland County is the highest priority of my administration. Code enforcement is essential for creating an environment that preserves the quality of life for our people, while attracting private investment in our towns and villages.’
That program has had many successes, but the main challenge has remained a lack of final authority over local municipalities. New York State has set the groundwork to remove that barrier in Spring Valley. Rockland County, under the leadership of the County Executive, and with the support of the Rockland County Legislature, needs to take the remaining necessary steps to assume the responsibility to effectively protect the lives of the residents of Spring Valley.

We are encouraged by the administration’s request to create the Rockland County Office of Building and Codes. We fully expect that the community advocates who have spent years leading the fight for code enforcement and fire safety will be given a seat at the table to act as advisors during the decision-making process. The Rockland County Illegal Housing Task Force and CUPON organizations are led and staffed by well-respected individuals, including current and former fire officials with intimate knowledge of the existing problems in Spring Valley at an address-by-address level of detail. To not take full advantage of their expertise would be foolish and irresponsible given what is at stake here. Further, any endeavor that fails to properly utilize the experience of these organizations simply cannot be viewed as a credible effort towards a real solution. Politics and personalities must take a back seat to making sure the most qualified people are in place to truly get this right.

So, we finally find the Day administration on the brink of having full power in Spring Valley to do the job we have always said needed to be done. If this takeover becomes reality on Feb. 14, we are fully committed to assisting the County Executive in delivering on the promises that he made to the people of Rockland in 2015 and we stand ready to do whatever it takes to support the effort to make real and positive changes in the Village of Spring Valley.