Rockland County, NY – Spring Valley Mayor Demeza Delhomme has come under fire after he allegedly ordered an underling to green-light the opening of a new yeshiva despite the fact that proper inspections of the building and its construction have yet to be completed.
LOHUD.com reports that at the heart of the controversy is a visit by Yeshiva Oholei Shem D’nitra’s developer Alex Goldberg last month to Assistant Building Inspector Jackenton Lavalesse’s office during which the mayor allegedly ordered Lavalesse over the phone to issue a certificate of occupancy for the building even though a planned walk-through inspection that day had been cancelled.
In an interoffice memo dated August 17, Lavalesse documented the phone call stating, “Without and discovery he (Delhomme) then stated that the C of O should be issued and that we shouldn’t hold up the property.
I was ordered to write out and issue the C of O based on the pretense that all issues would’ve been resolved.”
According to Lavalesse, his attempts to explain to Delhomme that all inspections had not been conducted fell on deaf ears.
After building inspector Walter Booker picked up on the gaff, Lavalesse subsequently revoked the C of O, but when confronted by Booker, Mayor Delhomme said, “I have never asked the result and never directed anyone on how to resolve any issue.”
