A state Senate probe of New York's building codes zeroes in on two municipalities with terrible reputations: Mount Vernon, where a lone inspector handles the entire city, and Ramapo, where lax enforcement has led volunteer firefighters and the County of Rockland to step in.
"The key takeaway from this investigation is that there has been a systematic failure to adequately prioritize code enforcement at all levels of government," said state Sen. James Skoufis, who leads the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations.
He said his panel's seven-month deep dive looked at "what is working, what is not working and where we need to focus on prioritization of code enforcement in the State of New York."
And Mount Vernon and Ramapo were repeatedly cited in the report for failures.