Question Of The Day: Building Permits

stan laurel May 1, 2012 at 01:15 pm

While I did not apply for a permit, my wife and I discovered how dysfunctional the Bldg. Dept. is when we were selling our home. First, one person said we had to get a permit and pay the penalties for a porch that had existed for over 50 years. Then another employee told us we had to get a permit and pay the penalties for a patio that was installed when no permit was required. I blame Kaiman for this mess.

James May 1, 2012 at 02:52 pm

As long as Kaiman is in place nothing will change
Building department is used as an organ for politics by him Five years ago Kaiman said the same thing that building department is back on track . How can you expect anything Other than disfunction when you put a policeman In charge of the Building Department ? Kaiman should be ashamed of himself , if he knew what shame is .

matteo May 1, 2012 at 03:21 pm

My clients had many nightmares. Example: while applying to legalize a deck, the Inspector went through the entire house and found that the 20 year old gas heater did not have a permit; the client only owned the house 12 years. He had to get the permit nunc pro tunc, after making several modifications at great cost.
My builder clients will not build in No. Hempstead. It's far too difficult and obstructionist.

Ben May 1, 2012 at 04:09 pm

Each of the men who work in the building depatment act like women.
One guy at the front desk who wear earings as effeminate manerisms and speaks with a lisp. The other men act like yentee's gossip when a citizen arrives with questions or in need of help interogate them about all kinds of irrelavant information including marital status, etc.. There are no females working in this department just men who act like women. Each employee is more than incompetant they excercise a myriad of inefficencies and delay tactics while extroting money out of TNH residents via fines for violations. Jon Kaiman had selected the most revolting civil servants he could so that applicants are turned off run away from the building department. The TNH Building Department is one reason for the sea of For Rent signs in Port Washington.

James May 1, 2012 at 06:02 pm

Kaiman is corrupt look it up

James May 1, 2012 at 06:04 pm

Kaiman is corrupt it's a known fact
Too many big shots are profiting , that's why he is still Around

James May 1, 2012 at 06:08 pm

Stop deleting truth and reality

Terry May 1, 2012 at 07:09 pm

Improvement ?? For the past 6 or 7 years the TNH building department has been by far the most dysfunctional government organization I have even interfaced with in my entire life. Within the past 5 years I have had the painful experience of getting 2 – relatively minor - building permits for my house. They lost my paper work 4 times, no standardized work flows, nothing significant documented on their computers – inefficiency and incompetent employees at every turn. However, and worse yet, for approx. $1500 they would ‘expedite’ the process for you. Extortion, in other words, for doing their jobs. Jon Kaiman takes no responsibility this long running mess; I blame him and didn’t vote for him last November.

Steve klyce May 1, 2012 at 08:03 pm

I know for a fact that the employees of the dept for the most part work hard and try their best. Post-corruption charges, they seem to be keenly aware that underhanded activities will be met with severe consequences. Having said that, there are a few members in the department who seem to belong to the Ridiculist Club. Approvals granted in previous submissions are reveresed for no particular reason. Requiring expensive modifications requiring additional permitting and then holding up issuing of the permits for items required. Demanding costly (time and money) variance hearings for foundations a couple inches outside the plan. I could go on and on. The front office seems to work smoothly (bring a book or some electronic thing though-they can get busy), but it seems the plan examiners must take joy in seeing how many letters of omission they can write for issues celarly covered in submitted plans.

James May 1, 2012 at 08:18 pm

Total lack of professionalism
Remember this department is headed by a former cop What do you expect ?

Adina Genn (Editor) May 2, 2012 at 08:16 pm

Have any of you sought permits in 2011? That's when the Town saw success.

Miss Ann Thrope May 3, 2012 at 12:57 pm

In my long experience as both a contractor and a government housing inspector, every building dept I ever worked with was a model of bureaucratic inefficiency, nasty arrogance, punitive cruelty and apathy. As with most government agencies, there is no accountability, no productivity standards, no work ethic, and most of all no respect for home owners. Even as an employee of another government agency in the same town, I couldn't get them to move on my job permits for HUD housing! The intellect requirement for these jobs is just one rung above an amoeba. Get it through your heads people, goverment doesn't know how to run anything efficiently - NOTHING, except maybe the armed forces. We need more privatization and less bureaucracy. Public servants should be held accountable to standards set by the taxpayers who pay them. They practically have to commit murder to be fired and have fantastic benefits. The payrolls are bloated and the waste is astounding. We need to wipe out entire useless agencies.

Miss Ann Thrope May 3, 2012 at 01:10 pm

I was the only hire in my office that wasn't either a political appointee or someone gifted the job to the otherwise unemployable relatives of people who were owed favors for God knows what. Those people didn't have the brains to sell hot dogs from a cart but had an inflated sense of self-importance. My colleagues were there for LIFE, and were the most incompetant and clueless people I've ever met in my life. Your job is secure for life as long as you don't rock the boat or question the corruption. Millions of dollars wasted, and I was even mandated to take out of town trips for "seminars" ... to any resort city I chose for a week on the government dime. What a joke! My bosses worked hard all day at just covering up what they were doing.

Average Port May 4, 2012 at 10:22 am

I applied for a permit in January and have yet to hear from the building department. So my vote is we have a long way to go

Stephanie Hall July 3, 2012 at 05:32 pm

We are currently seeking a permit and having an incredibly difficult time. I will not give up. As a new resident to Port Washington, I am appalled and will not give up no matter how long it takes! Town of North Hempstead, I am disappointed in you. Come election time, I can tell you who I will be campaigning AGAINST....

Gloria Devers August 10, 2012 at 05:35 pm

I live in the of Nortth Hempstead, I must tell you, I could not believe that that I have to get a peermit to install a fence in one side of my house until my next door neighbor that came in 2 years a ago, keep an questioning if I got a ermit to installed a fence, while i had been living in the same house for the past 19 years and he added that the pines that i replace 7 years ago belong to him, he did not want no fences in his side how ever when he came in he took some of my pines without letting me know if hr could do that and now he claimed that the pines are his and his wife does not want to take those pines because they belong to him.
I did not know what he was keep and coming with questions to my house, soon I leraned that he did not want me to installed one side fence to replace the old one.

Antonia March 22, 2013 at 12:56 am

Has anything changed? Anyone have comments for 2013?

Brian March 25, 2013 at 11:26 pm

Where do I start... My wife and I applied for building permits(Jan. 2011) for a renovation of our home(non-complex). The town offer an outside expeditor(plan reviewer) so we hired them to speed up the process. The expeditor (charged an extra $1200 on top of TONH exuberant building fees)completed their job in 10 days and passed the approved plans to the building department. They lost our plans 3 times, and it took us a total of 8 months to straighten out the mess. After the 7th month, I went down there every day to ask when I would receive my permit. Nobody could give me an answer! I was directed to Linda Brickmans office who was able to get the situation straighten out after 3 weeks of nagging her with daily phone calls... Fast forward to present day..... I recently past my final inspection and not long after, I get a letter in the mail from the wonderful Town Of North Hempstead. They are calming I never applied for a driveway/ pattio permit. I have the set of plans with their red stamp on it saying approved!!!!!!! You cant make this up.. I sent an E-mail and placed several phone calls for no answer.
I would also like to note that the building inspector who came to my home was rude as can be to my wife and I. He also had a trainee with him who he berated right in front of us. We actually felt bad for the guy.

David March 26, 2013 at 04:53 am

nothing will change until Kaiman and his cop commissioner are removed , we have been waiting for almost seven months foor a permit . we keep getting objection letters every month each time they want some more stupid information that was not addressed in previous letters . This Building department is being run by people with kindergarten mentality by an inexperience former policeman

Local Resident March 26, 2013 at 02:22 pm

There is a still a very long wait for permits...but some of the delay can be associated with the waiver of the 4x penalty for the legalization of existing work.
Once the waiver period ends, things will get back to normal, and there will still be long delays.