By Village Justice, Tom Liotti
Notwithstanding all of the hyperbolic rhetoric among Presidential candidates, we have real problems at home impacting directly on our schools, village and limited tax base. These vexing problems have become so severe that more drastic solutions must be found consistent with the civil rights of all and the preservation of the residential character of our community.
The Westbury Public School population has jumped from 3,772 in 2007 to 4,992 in 2015, with 77 percent of the students eligible for free lunches and 30 percent considered to have limited English proficiency. The district also has 74 homeless students and 130 unaccompanied minors. The Hispanic population of New Cassel, an unincorporated area adjacent to our village and part of the Westbury School District, is now 49 percent Hispanic.
There is a housing shortage but at the same time there are absentee landlords and other profiteers who are exploiting the poor and undocumented who live below the radar, not paying taxes but still utilizing municipal services and their children must attend our schools.
The village has two school districts within its borders. The Westbury School District consists of everything east of Ellison Avenue and New Cassel, which is not part of the village but part of the Town of North Hempstead. The village provides for the enforcement of its zoning code in the village whereas the Town of North Hempstead enforces their zoning code.
Nearly all of the building code cases in the Village Court alleging illegal multiple occupancies are from the Westbury School District but your village court has no jurisdiction to preside over cases from New Cassel. They occur in the town court which is located in the District Court of Hempstead.
Currently the village employs more code enforcement officers than the Town of North Hempstead, whereas it has far fewer illegal multiple dwellings than New Cassel which also accounts for a far greater proportion of students from undocumented families than there are in the village.
All of this tells us that the village, town and Westbury School District must work together to provide some of the solutions to this problem. We cannot provide all of them since that work must be left to state and federal legislators. But the court and village are looking at increased penalties, particularly for repeat offenders, including guidelines which may provide for comparative sentencing and the possibility of jail; community service; the suspension or revocation of rental permits; more disclosure on rental permit applications with copies of recorded leases. Where there is proof of unreported income of cash for rentals, these matters may be reported to the IRS and others. It’s time to push back.
